Orientul Mijlociu

Hamas launched an unprecedented sneak attack on Israel over the weekend that completely caught the self-professed Jewish State by surprise after all its security systems unexpectedly failed at the same time. The border wall was breached, some military bases were captured, and dozens of hostages were taken back to Gaza. Israel responded by launching airstrikes inside the strip and preparing a ground operation. Here are the top ten takeaways from everything that’s happened thus far in the latest Israeli-Hamas war:

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Some observers have been surprised by the self-restraint exercised by the Israeli-US duopoly and the Resistance Axis, which has averted an all-out regional war at least for now and thus contradicted their expectations of the other’s approach to this conflict. Neither side has proven themselves to be the “rabid psychotic warmongers” that their opponents’ public took for granted that they were, and this should prompt a rethinking from both about the true state of military-strategic affairs between them.

As war rages in Gaza, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to escalate, causing grievous harm to civilians and threatening stability across the Middle East. Crisis Group experts offer a 360-degree view of how various capitals in the region view this crisis and their own interests therein.

In an October 20, 2023 article in the Qatari daily Al-Arab, journalist Mansour Al-Mutlaq wrote that “what is happening in Palestine” (i.e., Hamas’ October 7, 2023 large-scale terrorist attack on Israel and the war that broke out in its wake) is the fulfillment of Allah’s words in Surah 17 of the Quran. Some Muslims interpret certain verses in this surah as conveying a divine promise regarding Palestine: the Jews will come from all over the world to settle in Palestine, and will sow corruption there and gain power, but will ultimately be defeated by the servants of Allah who will humiliate them and recapture the Al-Aqsa mosque. Based on this interpretation, Hamas officials have envisioned a war against Israel called “the Promise of the Hereafter,” involving the Palestinians and other Arab countries and organizations, who will together eliminate Israel. [1] Al-Mutlaq expresses hope that Allah’s promise for the defeat of the Jews in Palestine will come to pass in the near future.

At least 45 Americans claim to have been injured in recent attacks in Iraq and Syria, more than twice as many as the Pentagon previously disclosed, according to a new report.

The Pentagon initially claimed that 21 service members suffered traumatic brain injuries as a result of two drone attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, but an additional 24 troops have since reported such injuries, NBC reported Monday, bringing the total number of injured troops to 45. That number may rise as more troops come forward.

With Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza underway and Houthi rebels in Yemen firing missiles toward Israel, the risk of regional escalation by Iran’s various proxies has reached dangerous new heights.

A day before today’s planned speech by Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, the group claimed to have simultaneously attacked nineteen positions in Israel, representing the largest escalation of fighting along the Israeli-Lebanese border yet.

One hundred years after its founding, Türkiye is pivotal to regional and global affairs, but the Islamist-oriented policies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are often at odds with Türkiye’s NATO allies.

Erdogan’s support for Hamas in the context of the ongoing Hamas-Israel war will expand existing fissures with Washington.

L’attaque dévastatrice du Hamas le 7 octobre a changé la donne au Moyen-Orient. Le dossier israélo-palestinien, relégué au second plan depuis au moins une dizaine d’années, est brutalement revenu au cœur de la géopolitique régionale.

Alors que la guerre en cours entre le Hamas et Israël enhardit les mandataires de l’Iran dans la région, tous les acteurs impliqués (étatiques ou non étatiques) manœuvrent dans un jeu de pouvoir très complexe qui peut conduire à une guerre régionale à part entière ; mais un tel scénario peut être évité par une fin négociée.

On the morning of October 31, 2023, in the village of ‘Arura (north of Ramallah), Israeli security forces demolished the home of Saleh al-Arouri, deputy chairman of Hamas’ political bureau and in charge of the Hamas terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria. Palestinians rioted during the activity, throwing rocks and IEDs at the forces, who responded with riot control measures. Al-Arouri has not lived in the house for the past 15 years. After the Israeli forces left, residents came carrying Hamas flags to express their solidarity and see the destroyed house up close (QudsN Twitter account, October 31, 2023).

Saleh Muhammad Suleiman al-Arouri is a senior Hamas operative based in Turkey. On August 20 2014, he told the participants of the fourth conference of the World Union of Islamic Sages (held in Turkey) that Hamas’ military-terrorist wing was behind the abduction and murder of the three Jewish youths in Gush Etzion (June 12, 2014). He read his speech, saying that he was speaking on behalf of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal (calling him the “head of this resistance”). He was apparently recorded without his knowledge and his speech was uploaded to YouTube and received much feedback.