NY.– Just last week, an Israeli strike killed a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, Hezbollah fired a rocket at a vulnerable Israeli base, and Israel killed a senior Hamas militant in Beirut.
Each attack and counterattack in Gaza increases the risk that a catastrophic war will spread to the region.
A decades-old standoff between the United States and Israel against Iran and allied terrorist groups has raised fears that both sides will provoke a wider war to avoid showing weakness.
An Iranian-backed militia leader was killed in a US strike in Baghdad last week, and the US Navy recently exchanged fire with Iran-linked Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
Divisions within each camp add another layer of instability.
Hamas hoped the October 7 attack on southern Israel would trigger a war in Gaza and draw its allies into a larger conflict.
Israelis are increasingly talking about the need to change the equation in Lebanon, even as Washington seeks to contain the conflict.
As this game of chess becomes more complex, the chances of miscalculation increase.
Hamas says the October 7 attack was the Palestinians’ response to decades of Israeli rule.
There is no evidence that Iran, Hezbollah and other allied groups played a direct role or knew about it in advance.
But when Israel responded with one of the most devastating military offensives of the 21st century in Gaza, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, the so-called Axis of Resistance — Iran and the militant groups it supports across the region — came under pressure. to answer.
The Palestinian cause has deep resonance throughout the region, and leaving Hamas alone to face Israel’s wrath would clash with the West in the military alliance Iran has been building since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“They don’t want war, but at the same time they don’t want to allow the Israelis to attack without retaliation,” said Qasim Kasir, a Lebanese expert on Hezbollah.
