Hot spots spread throughout the Middle East

The violence has spread beyond Gaza’s borders and the rest of the world is watching closely. Attacks by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on October 7 provoked a brutal response from Israel, which stepped up bombardment of the Gaza Strip and stepped up ground operations in the occupied West Bank, killing thousands and displacing millions. People had to be forcibly displaced. ,

And with the war, the international community’s fears of increased tensions in the Middle East region have come true.

The devastation of the conflict has provoked an intense regional reaction that has led to the indirect involvement of multiple actors, including groups such as Yemen’s Houthis and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Who have worked from their sphere of influence and under the protection of regional powers.

From attacks by Houthi rebels on ships sailing through the Red Sea to Israel, to Iranian bombings in Iraq and Pakistan, Hostilities in various parts of the Middle East appear to be the perfect material for rapidly escalating the war in Gaza, which has already created instability in the region.

Here are the key points in the regional framework related to the war between Israel and Hamas.

Tension has increased between Hezbollah and Israel

Initially sending messages of condemnation to Tel Aviv and its allies in Washington for the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah has stepped up its campaign against Israel, even coming into direct confrontation with the government. Is using his military arsenal to enter. Benjamin Netanyahu’s.

Engaged in daily exchanges of missiles that began a few days after October 7, Due to Hamas’ attacks in alleged defense of the Palestinian cause, Hezbollah and Israel have intensified their conflictual past, with both being directly involved in the conflict in 2006, for which the Shia militia has shown its continued support in both speech and weapons.

After the bombings in Beirut on January 2 Who killed Hamas’s second-in-commandConcerns are growing in the international arena over the possibility of direct intervention by Israeli forces in Lebanese territory. Threats between the two sides have increased in the last month.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned on January 6, “Anyone who thinks about war with us will regret it.” His words brought a reaction from the head of the Israeli army’s Northern Command.ori gordinWho stressed on 16 January that his forces were “more prepared than ever” for a ground offensive against Lebanese militias.

However, Hezbollah is not the only armed group that has positioned itself against the Israeli offensive within the Gaza Strip.

Houthis in Yemen, Israel’s nightmare in the Red Sea

Another outlier in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in the Red Sea, an extremely important maritime transit route for Western shipping that has been disrupted by persistent attacks by Yemen’s most powerful rebel faction: the Houthis.

yemeni rebels Who managed to snatch political control of the country’s capital Sanaa from the weak ruling party supported by Saudi Arabia.There have been numerous hijackings and attacks on ships transiting the Red Sea, disrupting international trade and the international economy at a level never seen before.

Their main targets are ships of both Israel and its Western allies, who have been stepping up attacks against American and British ships, which has provoked a response from the West and the formation of a coalition. France, United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, United States and Seychelles Islands.

Moreover, in an effort to persuade the rebels to end attacks on the sea route, Washington and London have escalated their hostilities by directly bombing Yemeni territory.

“When you say are they working, are they stopping the Houthis? No. Will they continue? Yes,” US President Joe Biden responded to a question about whether the bombing of Yemen would stop the violence. Is it fulfilling its purpose or not? In the Red Sea.

Despite their geographical remoteness and their different modus operandi, the Houthis and Hezbollah have an important link that may hold the key to understanding their true role in this thorny conflict: Support of Iran.

Iran, a quagmire of regional hostility

Since the beginning of Tel Aviv’s recent offensive into the Palestinian territories, Iran has been one of the most forceful states in the region in expressing its support for Hamas, with whom it is estimated to have economic and arms relationsWhich has placed it as a fundamental part in this silent regional escalation of conflict.

As a traditional regional military power and counterweight to Israel in the Middle East, Tehran maintains a network of alliances with strong ties to various armed actors in different parts of the region. Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas, the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, and the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

Although Iran has a threatening discourse regarding Israel, the two countries have not entered into a direct confrontation, although Tehran claims it bombed an Israeli spy base in Iraq on January 16. This fact, although it has not received any response from Tel Aviv, has raised all the alarms for a possible direct confrontation between the two, Since Iran accused Israel of planning “terrorist attacks” from the said base.

However, Iranian activity in the region cannot be understood solely by its interest in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

The January 3 terrorist attacks, attributed to the jihadist group Islamic State, killed more than 80 people in Iran during an event to commemorate the death of General Qassem Soleimani. Killed in Iraq by the United States in 2020, They highlighted a potential weakness in Tehran’s security forces, which, according to some experts, has provoked the regional legitimization campaign launched by Iran.

“The government and the army are under immense pressure,” said Abdullah Khan, an analyst at the Pakistan Institute of Conflict and Security Studies. He described the Iranian bombing of Pakistan on January 16 as a step by Tehran to establish itself. Great military power in the region, preventing insurgency by separatist groups on its borders.

Under the pretext of attacking the hideouts of the Yesh al-Adl terrorist group based in the Pakistani separatist region of Balochistan, According to the Islamabad government, Iran bombed the border area, killing two minors. The above has been interpreted as an Iranian attempt to demonstrate its military might to groups hostile to its regime.

“Iran celebrated (Tuesday’s) attack in its media and the Pakistani public’s perception of a strong military is no longer the same,” Khan said.

Iran is wary of its allies’ role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as its ambitions to increase its influence in regional affairs and displace Western interests in the Middle East. Regional stability seems to be in danger.

In the 21st century marked by globalization and rapid decentralization of world military power, contemporary armed conflicts can hardly be contained within the boundaries of the protagonists.

Israel, under pressure from a large swath of the West that demands moderation in its attacks, faces multiple war fronts, which could represent a critical leveling in favor of Palestinian militias.

With AP, Reuters and local media