Total war scenario in the Middle East: tension extends beyond Israel and Palestine and extends to Lebanon and Syria

Two weeks have passed since Hamas made a surprise attack on Israel, killing nearly 1,400 people and kidnapping more than 200.. Thus, since last October 7, the international community has had its attention focused on this war that is intensifying more every day and, little by little, is covering more countries in the Middle East.

While the Israeli Army reinforces its plans and maneuvers to carry out a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip with the aim of ending Hamas, the Air Force continues bombing various points in the region. “In recent days, plans have been approved to expand operational activities,” the Israeli Army said in a statement this Saturday.

“We will enter the Gaza Strip. “We will begin an operational and professional mission to destroy Hamas operatives and infrastructure and will also keep in our minds the images, the scenes and the fallen from two weeks ago,” said Israel Defense Forces Chief Lieutenant General Herzi. Halevi.

Thus, Israel has intensified its bombing of Gaza in the last 24 hours. In a press conference this Sunday, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari assured that the Army has accelerated the pace of attacks on the Strip since Saturday while continuing to attack “dozens of terrorist targets,” according to military sources.

In addition to Gaza, the Palestinian region of the West Bank, controlled by the Israelis since 1967, is also suffering the consequences of this conflict, reaching its highest peak of violence since 2006, when the Second Intifada ended.. Israeli forces are carrying out raids and attacks in the West Bank to find alleged members of Hamas.

In these operations they use firearms with live bullets, tear gas canisters and sound grenades, in addition to resorting to air attacks.. Thus they have arrested more than half a thousand suspects: this Saturday alone they have arrested 89 “suspected of being involved in terrorist activities, 68 of whom are Hamas agents.”

However, although Gaza has become the main theater of this conflict, tensions are increasing in other territories that share a border with Israel, such as Lebanon and Syria.

Crossed attacks between Hezbollah and Israel

Israel's border with Lebanon is experiencing its most tense moment in decades. So much so, that the Netanyahu Government this Sunday ordered the evacuation of another fourteen communities in the north, close to the Lebanese border, while at the same time intensifying its attacks against Hezbollah infrastructure.

In this sense, the increasingly frequent exchange of fire between both troops is increasing fear that the war will spread to Lebanon.. In the last week, the level of violence has progressively increased until it has become an almost constant crossroads of attacks against increasingly larger geographical areas.

And this Shiite militia has launched dozens of anti-tank missiles, rockets and mortars towards Israeli soil, where they have tried to infiltrate; to which Israel has responded with intense attacks with artillery and also by air. In this way, Hezbollah would have been “escalating the situation,” as confirmed this Sunday by the spokesman for the Israeli forces Jonathan Conricus, who has defended that his side's response has so far been “measured” and “tactical.”

“The way it looks now, Hezbollah is attacking and dragging Lebanon into a war in which it will gain nothing, but in which it can lose a lot,” warned the Israeli spokesman, who warned that the Shiite group “is playing a very, very dangerous game” and has asked the Lebanese Government to consider whether it is willing to put at risk “what remains of its prosperity and sovereignty” for the “terrorists” of Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) thus denounce “the attacks that Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations backed by Iran have perpetrated against Israel. “Israel is only defending itself,” they affirm, justifying that it is the Shiite group that is attacking and blaming to the Lebanese authorities “of everything that happens on its territory.”

The Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, for his part, has insisted that they do not want a conflict and that they are maintaining contacts to try to contain the situation.. However, the view in Lebanon is that the decision is not in the hands of the state, but rather Hezbollah.

From this movement, its deputy secretary general, Naeem Qassem, assured this Saturday that the group “will intervene in the war” if necessary and that if Israeli troops begin a ground incursion into Gaza, it will be a “cemetery for the enemy.”. In contrast, Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah, accustomed to giving televised speeches from an unknown location, has not spoken since the outbreak of border violence.

Likewise, the United States has also entered this clash between Israel and Lebanon to warn that the entry of Lebanese troops into the war would have “consequences.” The American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has highlighted “the importance of respecting the interests of the Lebanese people, who would suffer the consequences if Lebanon is dragged into the conflict.”

Tension with Syria increases

Another of the States that is being involved in the conflict is Syria, which precisely denounced this Sunday that an Israeli missile attack has disabled the two airports in Damascus and Aleppo and has caused one death. This new attack against international airports, the third so far this month, took place during the early hours of the morning, a Syrian military source reported.

“The Israeli enemy simultaneously carried out an aerial attack with missile bursts from the Mediterranean, west of Latakia, and from the occupied Syrian Golan, against the international airports of Damascus and Aleppo,” the source said, according to the official agency. SANA news syria.

“The attack caused the death of a civilian worker at the Damascus airport, injuries to another worker and material damage to the landing strips of the two airports, which left them out of service,” he added.

Israel has not commented on this attack, but its Army understands that Syrian airports are used by militias to import weapons from Iran, a declared enemy of Israel and an active participant in the Syrian war in collaboration with the Government of Damascus.. In addition, Israeli forces attack Syrian territory relatively frequently, most of the time with missiles by its aviation and somewhat less by land from its side of the border.

Local activists have reported that Iranian and pro-Iranian militias are already strengthening their presence in southern and eastern Syria.. And, given Israel's threats to eliminate Hamas, there is fear that a joint response will be initiated from southern Lebanon and also from Syria to prevent the disappearance of its ally.

Since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas, armed groups have launched projectiles from Syria into Israeli territory, from where they have responded with artillery and mortars.. For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has explained that these attacks are attributed to “factions that work with Hezbollah”, also present in Syrian territory.

Israel warns its citizens not to travel to Egypt, Jordan or Morocco

The tensions are not only between the borders of Lebanon and Syria, but are gradually spreading to other neighboring countries: Israel raised the alert level this Saturday and issued a warning for its citizens not to go to Egypt, Jordan or Morocco

The Government has issued this warning due to the risk that its citizens will be targets of attacks in the middle of the war with the Palestinian Islamist militias in Gaza. In a joint statement from the National Security Council, the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israelis in these countries are also asked to leave them “as soon as possible.”

“Due to the continuation of the war, in recent days another significant upsurge in protests against Israel has been detected in several countries, especially in the Arab countries of the Middle East, along with signs of hostility and violence against Israeli and Jewish symbols” , indicates the statement. “The rhetoric of global jihad has become more extreme, requiring harm to Israelis and Jews around the world,” he adds.

The Peace Summit ends without an agreement

Faced with this situation, leaders and representatives of European and Arab countries attended the Peace Summit organized by Egypt in order to address the “Palestinian question” and seek ways to de-escalate the conflict.. However, it ended without a final joint statement.

The 34 countries and international organizations that participated in the meeting, which did not include Israel, have not been able to reach an agreement due to the different positions they maintain on the war in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas.

Thus, the Egyptian presidency issued a statement highlighting that the conflict has revealed “a deficiency in the values of the international community when addressing crises.”

“The international scenario in recent decades has revealed a serious deficiency in finding a just and lasting solution to the Palestinian question, because it was about managing the conflict and not putting a permanent end to it.”