A Storm of Conflict: Analyzing the Israel-Hezbollah Conflict Post-October 2023

On October 7, 2023, the Palestinian group Hamas launched a major attack on Israeli settlements near Gaza. This unexpected operation drew global attention and led to a series of responses from Israeli officials and their allies. Following this event, the Middle East experienced a significant escalation in regional conflicts, particularly involving Hezbollah, a Lebanese group with close ties to Iran.

More
A Storm of Conflict Analyzing the Israel-Hezbollah Conflict Post-October 2023
Israel-Hezbollah war will be costly

Israel-Hezbollah war will be costly

The Israel-Hezbollah conflict has once again brought the Middle East to the brink of full-scale war. Since October 2023, when the Palestine-Israel conflict flared up again, the border between Israel and Lebanon has become a flashpoint for military clashes. Hezbollah responded to Israel’s war in Gaza by increasing its attacks on Israeli military positions. In response, Israel has carried out significant artillery and airstrikes targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people on both the Israeli and Lebanese sides have been forced to flee their homes.

More

In response to Israel's striking of Iran's consulate in Syria, Ayatollah Khamenei's statement of "retaliation will be given" has heightened the possibility of the regional proxy war escalating into direct conflict. Since October 7th, Netanyahu has been attempting to expand the conflict by targeting Hamas and Shia militia objectives in both Beirut and Syria. The relatively controlled continuation of the "regional war" relied on Iran and Hezbollah refraining from militarily supporting Hamas. However, Khamenei's remarks suggesting that striking the Iranian consulate would mean targeting Iranian soil have also put Washington on high alert.

Against the backdrop of Israel's massacre in Gaza, attention has been shifting to Iran. Following the bombardment of the Houthis by the United States and the United Kingdom for disrupting commercial shipping in the Red Sea, Iran and Pakistan experienced an escalation, with both sides firing missiles over terrorism. Moreover, Israel killed five members of the Revolutionary Guards Corps in Damascus last weekend, resuming its past operations against the Iranian presence in Syria. The seeming purpose of such strikes is to stop Iran from sending military aid to the Axis of Resistance – namely Hezbollah and Hamas. More important, however, is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's commitment to ensuring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict's regionwide spillover – which contradicts the Biden administration.

A series of attacks and clashes sent shockwaves through the Middle East over the last week. Israel's massacres in Gaza and low-intensity conflict with Hezbollah at the Lebanese border remain underway. Meanwhile, in the Red Sea, the United States and Britain bombed Yemen's Houthis for the fourth time on Thursday. Washington also relisted the Houthis as a global terrorist group.

The Middle East rang in the new year with assassinations and terror attacks. Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy leader of Hamas' political bureau, was assassinated in Beirut last Tuesday. The following day, two bombings in Kirman, Iran (for which Daesh has claimed responsibility) killed 103 people. As those attacks shifted everyone’s attention to Israel, Iran and Hezbollah pledged to exact “revenge and a heavy price.”

The Gaza War Pushes International Community to Rethink Stance

It is clear that Tel Aviv, which never again wants to see a similar attack to that of October 7, does not care about international reactions. A possible ground operation in Gaza, the opening of a new front by Hezbollah, new attacks in Syria, and further developments in the West Bank are among the hot topics on the current agenda. Our region may experience the horrific repercussions of ambitious deterrence.

More
The Gaza War Pushes International Community to Rethink Stance
Funding Violence with Drugs The Cases of Hezbollah and the

Funding Violence with Drugs: The Cases of Hezbollah and the PKK

Hezbollah and the PKK use black market relations and criminal networks to receive huge amounts of easy money.

More

Russia wouldn't want to lose face in Tehran despite having bowed to Israeli pressures to limit their support for Bashar Assad and Hezbollah. Willing to do anything to weaken the Assad regime and Iran, Israel openly supports a federal solution.

Hezbollah will face its real crisis when it completes its transformation from a respected regional actor to a lonely actor.

Hezbollah continues to recklessly spend the capital it has built with its resistance against Israel on the Baath regime.