In light of Israel’s recent string of attacks on Hamas targets in Gaza, the United States has cautioned Hamas’s supporters from becoming involved. The United States’ highest ranking military official has issued a warning to Iran not to get involved. It’s not hard to see why, given the region-wide instability it could cause.
Israel Under Attack
The radical Islamist party Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, launched an unexpected assault of at least 3,000 missiles into Israel early on the morning of October 7. Terrorists in motorized paragliders swooped down on Israeli cities, kibbutzim, and a music festival in the southwest while missiles landed, and other militants used bulldozers to blast down Israel’s security line, letting gunmen pour through on motorcycles and trucks.
The terrorists began a bloody killing spree, going door to house in communities and killing nearly everyone they came across. At the Supernova music festival alone, at least 260 people were killed, and at the Kfar Aza kibbutz, another 100 people were killed. At least 1,200 Israelis have been killed, while another 150 have been kidnapped and are being held hostage in Gaza.
Israel’s reaction was predictable; the country’s military moved to secure the border and eliminate or apprehend the invaders. The IDF estimates that 1,500 terrorists have been killed within Israel’s borders. Also, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to wipe out Hamas, the group that has ruled Gaza since 2007 and has used the territory as a launchpad for rocket and terrorist operations.
Several Israeli air and artillery strikes were launched against Hamas targets in Gaza. The Palestinian civilian population is suffering as a result of Hamas’ illegal policy of hiding its assets in civilian neighborhoods.
Iran Is the Problem
Hamas is a radical Sunni group, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood that first appeared in 1987 — but it’s heavily backed by Iran, which seems to overlook Hamas’s Sunni identity because it’s a useful proxy against Israel. Iran insists it had nothing to do with the crimes of October 7, but Hamas officials have accused the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) of aiding in the planning of the attack.
Israel is expected to strike back at Iran if evidence of Iranian involvement emerges. Meanwhile, Iran has urged other Muslim nations to aid Hamas in their assault on Israel. Not yet; in fact, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which repaired relations with Israel as part of former president Donald Trump’s Abraham Accords, condemned the incident as a “serious and grave escalation” and expressed “appalled” at Hamas’s decision to kidnap civilians.
Iran is worried by the Abraham Accords, which could leave it facing a Middle East that’s united against it, with both Jewish and Arab states opposing the Tehran regime. Right now Israel is negotiating the normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia, the biggest and wealthiest Gulf state and Iran’s most determined enemy; was the attack aimed at wrecking those negotiations?
The United States, in any case, would prefer that Iran quit stirring the pot. The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier battle group is currently its route to the coast of Israel, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Q. Brown Jr. has warned Iran to back off. At a press conference on October 9, he said the US doesn’t want the conflict to spread and “the idea is for Iran to get that message loud and clear.” The question is, after President Biden’s short-sighted decision to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian funds in exchange for a handful of Iranian-American hostages, does Tehran respect the US enough to listen?
