By Jana Choukeir and Tala Ramadan
DUBAI, March 18 (Reuters) – Israel has been fighting wars on several fronts in the Middle East since the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked communities in the country in October 2023 and triggered a conflict in Gaza.
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It has engaged in heavy bombings and assassinated some of its most implacable foes, all backed by the Islamic regime Iran.
GAZA
The surprise 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which Hamas-led fighters killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, shattered Israel’s reputation as invincible in a hostile Middle East.
Israel, which had a history of wars with Hamas, has killed the group’s top leaders including Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds of the 2023 violence. Israel also killed Hamas’ elusive military leader Mohammed Deif, who had survived seven assassination attempts.
More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities, and most of the enclave has been reduced to ruins. Israel says it aims to eradicate Hamas. It plans for Gaza’s post-war future are not clear.
WEST BANK
In January, immediately after the Gaza ceasefire began, Israeli forces launched a major operation against militant groups in a number of refugee camps in the occupied West Bank.
The operation has driven tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and increased fears that U.S. President Donald Trump will give the green light to a full Israeli annexation of the territory seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
LEBANON
Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which was Iran’s most powerful ally in the region, began attacking its arch foe Israel on October 8, 2023, in support of Hamas.
Border clashes exploded into a war between Israel and Hezbollah, which left the group severely weakened.
In mid-September 2024, a series of coordinated explosions targeted Hezbollah’s communication devices across Lebanon. Thousands of pagers detonated simultaneously, followed by the explosion of numerous walkie-talkies the next day.
These attacks resulted in about 40 fatalities and more than 3,400 injuries, one of the worst security breaches in the group’s history.
Israel also dealt a devastating blow to Hezbollah when it killed veteran leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike on Beirut. Israel also killed his presumed successor one week later.
SYRIA
Shortly after the Israel-Hamas war broke out, Israel carried out airstrikes in Syria, a main ally of Iran and a stronghold for Hezbollah under the rule of autocrat Bashar al-Assad.
Islamist rebels ousted Assad on December 8. But Israel is not taking any chances. Israel will step up airstrikes on Syrian weapons stores, officials said one day after Assad’s fall, and keep a limited troop presence on the ground to head off any threat that could emerge in the fallout.
YEMEN
Yemen’s Houthis have become a more prominent opponent to Israel after Hezbollah and Hamas were severely weakened.
It has carried out more than 100 attacks on international shipping since November 2023 in what it says is solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians, disrupting global shipping and costing countries billions of dollars in lost revenues.
Israel directly hit Yemen in December 2024, marking the beginning of a campaign against the Houthis.
IRAN
Iran and Israel have engaged in a shadow war for decades while avoiding direct large-scale military confrontation. Their confrontation erupted into open conflict after Hamas attacked Israel.
Israel targeted the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, 2024, prompting a direct military attack by Iran.
On October 1, 2024, Iran carried out a big missile attack against Israel with over 180 ballistic missiles fired from Iranian territory.
Israel struck military sites in Iran on October 26, 2024, saying it was retaliating against Tehran’s attacks.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir and Tala Ramadan; Additional reporting by James Mackenzie in Jerusalem; Editing by Michael Georgy)
