The large-scale conflict between Palestine and Israel has also affected the capital market.
After the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, international crude oil continued to rise, with WTI crude oil futures rising by more than 4% to $86.36 per barrel; Brent crude oil futures rose by nearly 4% to $87.73 per barrel.
Spot gold rose nearly 1%.
The three major U.S. stock index futures fell on Monday, with Nasdaq futures down 0.6% and S&P 500 futures down 0.7%. The yield on Australia's three-year government bonds fell 5BP to 3.95%.
Some analysts said that although neither Israel nor Palestine is a major oil producer, the conflict is taking place in a wider range of major oil producing regions, and investors need to be alert to the risk of further escalation of the conflict. Among them, the degree of Iran's involvement will be a key factor affecting international oil prices.
Currently, Israel has two refineries with a combined capacity of nearly 300,000 bpd. The country produces almost no crude oil and condensate, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The Palestinian Territory has no oil production, according to the EIA.
On October 8, local time, the Israeli stock market opened sharply lower and then continued to fall. The Israeli benchmark stock index TA-35 fell by more than 7% at one point. By the close of trading, it had fallen by 6.47%.
The Palestinian side said its stock exchange would be closed on Sunday and reopen on Monday.
Foreign media: Crude oil prices may surge in the short term
According to a report by Global Times on October 9, citing Russia's smart-lab website, although this conflict may not cause a large-scale increase in world oil prices, the possibility of the world facing higher oil prices in the future should not be underestimated. The US CNBC website reported on the 8th, citing the analysis of energy experts, that international crude oil prices may surge in the short term on Monday.
Bloomberg commentator Javier Blas said that international oil prices may rebound in the future, and the performance of the oil market will depend on Israel's response to the Hamas attack.
Wang Xiaoyu, a young associate researcher at the Center for Middle East Studies at Fudan University, believes that crude oil prices may rise in the short term, but it is unlikely that an oil crisis like the one in 1973 will occur.
Israeli government may launch "major military activities"
According to CCTV News on October 9, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office said on the 8th local time that the Israeli Security Cabinet approved Israel's entry into a state of war on the evening of the 7th. Israeli media said that Article 40 of Israel's Basic Law stipulates that this move means that the Israeli government is allowed to carry out "major military activities". The relevant decision statement will be submitted to the Israeli Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for approval on the 9th, and then the Israeli Prime Minister will be required to announce the decision at the plenary session of the Parliament.
On October 8, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance (Hamas) announced that it had fired hundreds of rockets at Israel late on the 7th and early on the 8th. In addition, a spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, an armed faction of Hamas, said on the 8th that in response to the Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, the Qassam Brigades fired rockets at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv and the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon that night. The Qassam Brigades also launched a new ground attack on Israel that day.
On the same day, Israel continued to carry out air strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. Hamas offices and training camps in Gaza and some residential houses were bombed, resulting in many deaths. In addition, the IDF continued to send more troops to the Gaza Strip. An IDF spokesman said on the afternoon of the 8th that the IDF had regained control of some areas previously seized by Palestinian militants and would evacuate all Israeli residents in more than 20 towns along the Gaza border within the next 24 hours.
According to the latest report of The Times of Israel on October 8, local time, in the new round of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the death toll in Israel exceeded 700 and at least 2,156 people were injured. According to the real-time report of The Jerusalem Post, the Israeli Embassy in the United States reported that the conflict has caused 2,243 injuries in Israel, of which more than 300 are serious.
On the same day, data released by the Palestinian health department showed that the Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip had killed 413 Palestinians, including 78 children and 41 women. In addition, the air strikes also injured 2,300 people. In addition, the Palestinian health department stated that the Israeli bombing had displaced more than 20,000 people in the Gaza Strip.
Analysts believe that it will not end in the short term
According to CCTV News, it is reported that this large-scale conflict between Palestine and Israel is the second large-scale conflict between the two sides since May 2021, and it is also the largest conflict between Palestine and Israel in recent years. Reuters reported that Hamas launched its largest raid on Israel in many years on October 7. This attack not only saw an unknown number of Hamas militants infiltrate Israel from the Gaza Strip "unprecedentedly", but also marked the escalation of the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict to its most serious level for many years.
Analysts believe that this conflict seems to have come "suddenly", but "a three-foot-thick ice does not form overnight". As the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been slow to advance, violent clashes between the two sides have been "rapidly increasing" for some time, finally leading to a significant deterioration of the situation.
Some analysts pointed out that the recent provocative actions of Jewish settlers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the killing of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli army in the West Bank were clearly the direct trigger for Hamas's retaliation.
In fact, the conflict between Palestine and Israel has been intensifying since the beginning of 2023. The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Wennesland, once said that the number of violent clashes between Palestine and Israel has "increased sharply" since 2023. As of August, more than 200 Palestinians and nearly 30 Israelis have been killed in violent clashes between the two sides, and the death toll has exceeded the whole of 2022. This is the year with the highest number of deaths in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict since 2005, highlighting the "worrying trend" that has emerged throughout the occupied Palestinian territories for some time.
Wennesland said that because both Palestinians and Israelis have little hope of advancing the peace process, a dangerous and volatile vacuum has emerged, and extremists on both sides have taken advantage of the situation and increasingly used lethal weapons, leading to an escalation of the conflict.