U.S. gas prices are likely to keep falling despite the Israel-Hamas war, analysts say
. The conflict in the Middle East, while a cause for concern, has had little effect on the global price of oil and therefore the cost of gasoline in the U.S. Prices for benchmark Brent crude, the global benchmark for petroleum prices, are now trading at about $63 a barrel, below where they were before the fighting began. This is because the conflict is mostly localized to Israel and the Gaza Strip, and has not yet involved the larger oil-producing countries in the region. The U.S. has already started to fill its winter inventory of oil, meaning that the demand for oil is lower. That increases the downward pressure on the price, and this could cause prices at the pump to remain low.