From the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, there were speculations of the war spreading to surrounding nations.
Iran-backed groups in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq have launched attacks on Israel and its allies in support of Hamas.
Israel’s Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, has affirmed that Israel is indeed fighting the ongoing war on multiple fronts.
At a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee hearing, Gallant said, “We are in a multi-front war and are coming under attack from seven theatres: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria (West Bank), Iraq, Yemen and Iran.”
“We have already responded and taken action in six of these theatres, ” he noted.
“And I say here in the most explicit way – anyone who acts against us is a potential target, there is no immunity for anyone,” he added.
Clashes along Lebanon-Israel border between Hezbollah and Israel have continued to intensify, with daily exchanges of missiles, airstrikes and shelling across the frontier.
Daniel Hagari, regularly posts updates regarding activity along the border with Lebanon disclosed that a number of launches were detected from Lebanon towards northern Israel.
Hagari said that in the morning, the Israeli military attacked a number of targets in Lebanon, including a Hezbollah target which was struck by an Israeli fighter jet.
He added that an air-to-air missile was fired at an Israeli aircraft from Lebanon but did not hit its target.
Iraq, one of the “seven theatres” mentioned by Gallant, has increasingly become a scene for strikes between Iran-backed forces and the United States amid Israel’s brutal war on Gaza.
U.S forces have repeatedly targeted sites used by Iran and its proxy forces in Iraq and Syria in response to dozens of attacks on American and allied forces in the region since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, 2023.
The U.S said on Tuesday, December 26, 2023 that it launched attacks on Iran-aligned groups in Iraq.
Iraq’s government condemned the overnight U.S air strikes on Iraqi military positions that it said killed one serviceman and injured 18 other people, calling them a “clear hostile act”.
The government condemned the U.S strikes as “an unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty.”
Gallant’s comments come after an Israeli airstrike in a Damascus neighbourhood on Monday was reported to have killed a high-ranking Iranian General, Sayyed Razi Mousavi.
The killing of Mousavi, a longtime adviser of the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guards in Syria, came amid ongoing fears of the Israel-Hamas war triggerring a regional war.
Iran’s Defence Ministry has said Israel “will pay the price” for the killing of Mousavi.
“Our response will be strict and effective, but will not provide room for any Israeli exploitation,” the ministry’s statement said.
Iran’s Retaliation To Be Based On Calculations
Following the killing of IRGC commander Sayyed Razi Mousavi, Ali Akbar Dareini, a researcher at the Centre For Strategic Studies, opined that there is “no way Iran is not going to respond to this act of terrorism” but will do so based on calculations.
“Killing a top Iranian general in a foreign land is a violation of international law,” he said.
“Israel has stepped one move further into the red zone, it has crossed the red line, so Iran will retaliate. But how Iran is going to retaliate to this assassination is not clear at this point.
“It could be in terms of Iranian allies attacking Israel, it could be an act of revenge from within Israel, and it could be an Iranian expansion of its nuclear programme.”
Ali Akbar Dareini
“So there are a number of options Iran has, but Iran is not going to show any emotional reaction,” he said.
“Iran’s retaliation will be based on calculations,” Dareini added.
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