Sabre-rattling Iran warns expansion of the Israel-Hamas war across the Middle East is ‘inevitable’

Iran has warned that the expansion of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East is “inevitable”, claiming that Tel Aviv’s aggression in Gaza will be the catalyst for more widespread violence.

“Due to the increasing intensity of the war against the civilian residents of Gaza, the expansion of the scope of the war has now become inevitable,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. a call.

His comments, published on the ministry’s website, increased fears among some analysts that the violence in Gaza could spark a wider regional conflict.

On October 7, Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip stormed across the heavily militarized border and killed more than 1,400 people in southern Israel. Most were civilians. The militants also seized about 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and retaliated with an aerial bombardment and a ground offensive. According to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, more than 10,800 people have been killed, two-thirds of whom are women and children.

Now Israel has agreed to four-hour daily breaks in the fighting and established evacuation corridors for fleeing Gazans while the IDF carries out on-the-ground operations aimed at rooting out Hamas.

But Palestinian authorities insist that Israeli airstrikes are killing so many civilians that hospitals and morgues are being overwhelmed, making normal death rituals virtually impossible.

Overcrowded cemeteries have forced families to dig up long-buried bodies and deepen the holes, and overcrowded morgues have forced hospitals to bury people before their relatives can claim them.

IDF soldiers operate in Gaza

Israeli soldiers walk through rubble amid the ongoing ground invasion against Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip, November 8, 2023

“Due to the increasing intensity of the war against the civilian residents of Gaza, the expansion of the scope of the war has now become inevitable,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (right) (Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei left) .

People watch Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah’s speech on the Israel-Hamas conflict on a screen at Imam Hossein Square in Tehran, Iran on November 3, 2023

Many in the international community have called on Israel to reduce the intensity of its attacks on Gaza, with the UN today calling for an end to the carnage of Israel’s military campaign.

“The current course chosen by the Israeli authorities will not bring the peace and stability that both Israelis and Palestinians want and deserve,” wrote Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), in an op-ed in the media. “The carnage just has to stop.”

Meanwhile, Iran – which backs Hamas financially and militarily – has hailed the militant group’s attack on Israel as a “success” – although it has denied any involvement.

President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran sees it as “its duty to support the resistance groups” but insisted they would act independently.

Tehran also backs the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, whose militants and allies have skirmished with Israeli forces along their border in deadly clashes since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.

In a sign of escalating regional tensions, a series of missile and drone attacks have also targeted military bases housing US and other forces in an anti-jihadist coalition in Iraq and Syria.

A group known as “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” has claimed most of these attacks, which Washington has linked to Iran.

The United States has sent two groups of aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean as part of its efforts to deter a broader war.

Raisi will join Arab leaders in the Saudi capital on Saturday for summits expected to underscore demands that Israel’s attacks on Gaza must end before violence spreads to other countries.

Iran does not recognize Israel and has made support for the Palestinian cause a centerpiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, while training and financing several proxy groups in the Middle East.

This photo taken from the Israeli side of the Gaza Strip border on November 10, 2023, shows billowing smoke after the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, amid ongoing fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement

Civil defense teams and civilians continue their search and rescue operations as Israeli attacks continue on the 35th day in Rafah, Gaza on November 10, 2023

Roads, vehicles and buildings severely damaged after Israeli forces invaded the Jenin Camp in Jenin, West Bank on November 9, 2023

Based in Lebanon, Hezbollah has emerged in recent years as a powerful regional force, possessing a versatile arsenal and diverse military capabilities that pose a significant threat to Israel.

The Lebanese political and military group emerged in the early 1980s in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and officially announced its existence in 1985 with the publication of its first manifesto.

Initially, the group was a large but informal conglomerate of Shia Muslims in Lebanon who were spurred on by Iran’s Islamic Revolution in the 1970s, which culminated in the overthrow of the Shah and the establishment of the Islamic Republic by Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini.

Tehran saw the potential to turn the insurgent Shiite group into a formidable ally and tasked the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps with instructing, training and financing them.

The Iranian connection has remained a defining aspect of Hezbollah’s identity the nature of the group’s multi-faceted setup as a political party and armed militia allows it to exert significant influence.

In addition to the array of small arms, machine guns and tens, if not hundreds of thousands of missiles at its disposal, Hezbollah has an array of anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems, a fleet of thousands of drones and dozens of tanks and anti-aircraft systems. armored vehicles.

Hamas was not initially founded or financed by Iran, but by Tehran in the 1990s tried to cultivate Hamas as a strategic ally.

Although religious differences exist between Iran’s Shia theocracy and the Sunni Islam of Hamas, their shared opposition to Israel motivated Tehran to provide financial aid, weapons and military training.

Fighters of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah

Gunmen from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, during an anti-Israel military march in Gaza City

Members of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, parade on a truck carrying rockets on a street in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip

Militarily, Hamas cannot match Hezbollah, but the group has shown it can use guerrilla warfare tactics that can make any ground attack dangerous for Israeli forces.

Meanwhile, in Yemen, the Houthi rebel movement – ​​a Shiite group waging a bitter war against Yemen’s Sunni government, which is backed by a multinational coalition led mainly by Saudi Arabia – recently fired rockets at Israel, which had to be intercepted by a American warship. .

Unlike Hezbollah and Hamas, the Houthis do not consider Israel their greatest enemy, but have expressed significant anti-Jewish sentiments and could be considered another potential Israeli adversary in the event of a broader war.

Even the Syrian National Armed Forces, a group made up of several armed militias that worked together to fight alongside Bashar al-Assad’s government against rebel groups in the Syrian civil war, were trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Syria, in addition to Iran, supplies missiles, drones and other weaponry to Hamas and Hezbollah.