White House and Pentagon officials have said they will hold Iran accountable for attacks on US bases by Iranian proxies.
US troops in Iraq and Syria came under a spate of new rocket and drone attacks over the weekend, as the Pentagon sent an Ohio-class nuclear-powered submarine into the region to join two aircraft carrier strike groups in a bid to deter Iran and its proxies from exploiting Israel’s war in Gaza.
Interviews with faction leaders reveal anger with Hamas over starting a unilateral conflict, but also a determination to get involved if Hezbollah greenlights such a move and Israel invades Gaza.
Iranian-backed Iraqi armed factions are unlikely to participate directly in the Israel-Hamas war as long as it is solely led by the Palestinian militant group, amid a split in the decision to target US military bases in Iraq and Syria among these same factions, commanders of Iranian-backed armed groups told Al-Monitor.
Lebanese militia Hezbollah will step up attacks on bordering Israeli areas and US military sites in the Middle East up to a “complete confrontation” if Israel continues its offensive in the Gaza Strip, Naim Qassem, the group’s deputy secretary general, said in an interview with NBC News.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Wednesday killing a “senior Hamas weapons developer” in an airstrike on the Gaza Strip.
“IDF troops are continuing to operate inside the Gaza Strip to kill terrorists and direct aircraft to strike terror infrastructure. Based on Israeli Security Agency (ISA) and IDF intelligence, an IDF fighter jet killed Mohsen Abu Zina, Hamas’ Head of Weapons and Industries in its manufacturing department,” the IDF said in a statement.
Israeli ground forces were battling Hamas fighters deep inside Gaza’s largest city, Israel said Tuesday. The push signals a major new stage in the month-old conflict, and its leaders foresee controlling the enclave’s security after the war.
On November 6, 2023, the online Rai Al-Youm daily reported that the Hamas military wing ‘Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) military wing Saraya Al-Quds had both asked Hizbullah to give them greater freedom and independence in their operations against Israel from South Lebanon. This could indicate a possible escalation in attacks on Israel from Lebanese soil.
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:
———-
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.
On 26 July, high-ranking Nigerien officers announced on national television that they had overthrown President Mohamed Bazoum, who was democratically elected in 2021. In this Q&A, Crisis Group analysts lay out the reasons for the coup as well as the stakes going forward.
What’s new? As jihadist groups in the Sahel move southward, Côte d’Ivoire has beefed up its security deployment in the north and rolled out a range of social projects to alleviate poverty and youth unemployment. Militant violence has subsided since a series of attacks in the north between 2020 and 2021.