• Pedro Sánchez summit calls for a "humanitarian ceasefire" in Gaza
  • War Clashes with Hezbollah, Israel's other front on the border with Lebanon
  • Carry-on baggage In the face of spiralling violence and confusion

With 120,000 Israelis evacuated from their homes to flee shelling and infiltration, Israel faces its biggest and most diversified challenge since the 73 war. The fronts in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen – all of them supported by Iran – are being set ablaze by the massive Israeli military offensive against the fundamentalist group Hamas. This weekend's attacks and warnings in areas more or less far from the Jewish state could lead to a regional war as the imminent ground incursion into the Gaza Strip progresses.

The trauma of October 7 in Israel, caused by the largest attack in its history (23,1 dead, 400 kidnapped and 213 missing) is much greater than that of October 100, 6, which explains the unprecedented military retaliation that has caused more than 73,4 deaths in the territory controlled by Hamas and inhabited by more than 600.2 million people.

Iran today sees its dream of a confrontation closer from its proxies surrounding its great enemy without the need for a direct clash and further away its nightmare of the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Loop

It is the epicenter of war and suffering. Unlike previous escalations, the Israeli authorities do not intend to "hit Hamas" but to eliminate it. "The Air Force is catching up with a lot of terrorists, but the only way to put an end to Hamas as a regime and its armed capacity is a ground intervention," a former senior Israeli defense official told El Mundo, adding: "No country that has suffered such carnage can sit idly by. Hamas, which was tried to be appeased with money and work permits for Gazans, can no longer be our neighbor."

But the road to this Israeli goal has become hell for Palestinians in the Strip, especially in the north, who have no memory of such lethal and intense bombardments.

While Israel spoke on Sunday of the "death of dozens of terrorists killed" in the latest attacks, as well as a soldier in a confrontation during a one-off raid, the Hamas government denounced that 55 people died in the previous night's bombings alone. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says 29 workers in Gaza have been killed in a war that is shaping up to be a long one. The Air Force is employing more and more force with the stated goal of facilitating the entry of its soldiers. However, Washington prefers to prolong the wait for the invasion in the face of the possibility of the release of more hostages.

"I would like to warn the United States and the Israeli puppet regime that if they do not immediately end the crimes against humanity and genocide in Gaza, anything is possible at any time and the region would become uncontrollable," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said.

For the second day in a row, the Rafah border crossing was opened to receive the humanitarian convoy. The 17 trucks carrying water, food and medicine did so accidentally due to clashes between the military and militiamen in a nearby area. Not enough aid to meet the needs of an enclave that has been under siege and bombs for 16 days.

"During the ongoing clashes in the Gaza Strip, one of the Egyptian border watchtowers was accidentally hit by fragments of a projectile from an Israeli tank," Egyptian military spokesman Gharib Abdelhafez explained about a mistake admitted by Israel in the Keren Shalom border area that caused nine minor injuries.

West Bank

For the first time since the Second Intifada 20 years ago, Israel used a fighter jet against militias in the West Bank. The motive, according to Israel, was to destroy an underground compound at the Al Ansar mosque in the Jenin refugee camp to dismantle a Hamas and Islamic Jihad commando. According to Channel 12, they were going to carry out a suicide bombing or infiltration.

Before October 7, the West Bank seemed the most propitious place for a full-scale confrontation after more than a year of bombings, raids and armed clashes, while Gaza remained relatively calm. Hamas preferred to preserve its regime and encourage attacks from Jenin or Nablus. That, at least, is what Israel believed, in a mistake it has paid for lethally.

Hamas's "success" on October 7 was widely applauded by its supporters in the West Bank under the watchful eye of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Since then, at least 90 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed in clashes, foiled bombings, operations and riots.

Lebanon

If fully activated, the second hottest front will become the largest. The powerful Hezbollah group supported Hamas' attack with words and blows (basically anti-tank guided missiles) with the aim of "distracting" the common enemy in its campaign in Gaza. Israel responded forcefully but in a limited way in an exchange of blows that at any other time would have provoked a war like the one in 2006. This date was recalled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn the head of the militia, Hassan Nasrallah: "I don't know right now if Hezbollah will decide to intervene fully in the war, but if it does it will miss the 2006 war. You're making the mistake of your life." He also sent a message to the Lebanese people to know that the intervention of the pro-Iranian movement would cause Israel to hit the group in such a way that "the meaning for it and for Lebanon would be devastating."

Hezbollah has a dilemma. If it intervenes directly, its troops and Lebanon may end up suffering even more than in the 2006 war. If it fails to do so, it will leave its Sunni ally in the Iranian axis alone. The decision is in the hands of Nasrallah and Iran. So far, it has managed to disrupt the lives of 60,000 evacuated Israelis and has caused the Israeli armed forces to split into two fronts.

Syria

For the second time since the start of the war with Hamas, an airstrike attributed to Israel hit airports in Aleppo and Damascus, knocking out their runways. As it has done in recent years following the firing of missiles at arms convoys sent from Tehran to its militias in Syria or Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel did not comment publicly, but believes Iran wants to take advantage of the crisis to speed up the supply of military equipment.

Syria is a pivotal piece in the ring designed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards around Israel, either with missiles fired or as a platform to send sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Yemen

The score of missiles and drones fired by the Houthis against Israel and intercepted by the United States have set off alarms in Kiria (Tel Aviv) and the Pentagon (Washington). The pro-Iranian militia warned on Sunday that "Zionist ships" will be hit in the Red Sea if bombardments continue in Gaza. Its possible participation in the war is one of the reasons for the US military build-up in the region.

Iraq

Several pro-Iranian militias have revealed that they are in contact with Hamas and vow not to stand idly by if the war continues. In his telephone conversation with Islamist leader Ismail Haniyah, the secretary general of the Shiite movement Al Nujaba, Akram Al-Kaabi, pledged help. For the time being, the United States has ordered the evacuation of non-essential personnel from its embassy in Baghdad and its consulate in Erbil.

  • Israel
  • Hamas
  • Hezbollah
  • Lebanon
  • Iran
  • Gaza Strip
  • Syria
  • Yemen
  • Iraq
  • Benjamin Netanyahu
  • Aleppo
  • Saudi Arabia
  • War in Israel