Imagine if you can, a foreign government ordering the immediate evacuation of a city whose population is around a million people, roughly that of Glasgow and Liverpool, combined.

Well, the Netanyahu government has ordered just such an evacuation of Gaza right

now. It's difficult to imagine the humanitarian catastrophe of the Palestinian people worsening,

but that may be about for happen. It comes as Donald Trump is preoccupied elsewhere. The American

and Israeli airstrikes have humiliated but not crushed Iran. The so-called

axis of resistance, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis has been seriously weakened, but remains,

it seems, unbroken. And it comes as Israel has now attacked what it believed were members of the

Hamas leadership in one of the apparent peacemaking Arab countries in the Gulf, Qatar.

I'm Gavin Esler, and this is Not a Drill.

To talk us through the latest developments and also whether the Arab states in the

Gulf that were courted by Donald Trump, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar itself,

may even now play a part in diffusing the endless conflict. I'm joined on This Is Not a Drill by

Emil Hokayam, senior fellow for Middle East Security at the International Institute for Strategic

Studies. Emile, welcome. Thanks for having me.

Cut off first. I mean, this is a real shock, isn't it? Israel attacking what has been a relatively

friendly Gulf state that's trying to act as a peacemaker?

A shock, yes, but not a surprise.

You know, in the past two years, Israel has asserted its military dominance in the region

and has essentially operated where it wanted, how it wanted, with little regard for the ramifications, the second and third

order effects of a military first approach. From Israel's perspective, anything that is related

to Hamas is fair game, regardless of the macro conditions and regardless of the status or the prospect

of a deal that would end this war. It's too early to tell, but it seems like Israel has hit

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