Smoke rises after Israeli strikes on the seaport of Gaza City.
New Delhi:
Israel has vowed to escalate its response to an attack by Hamas with a ground offensive, but the country’s military is also under attack on two other fronts – Lebanon and Syria.
Here is a lowdown on the threats that Israel is currently facing:
Hamas
Nearly 1,200 Israelis have died after a surprise terror attack last week, which it responded to with massive shelling of Gaza. The attacks on Israel were orchestrated by Hamas, which has run the Gaza Strip since 2007.
Hamas refuses to recognise the state of Israel and has been involved in numerous rounds of conflict with the country.
The conflicts involve Hamas launching rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel, followed by Israeli airstrikes and bombardment of Gaza.
The group is part of a regional alliance comprising Iran, Syria, and the Shia Islamist group Hezbollah in Lebanon, which all broadly oppose US policy in the Middle East and Israel.
Lebanon
Just days after Hamas attacked Israel, Lebanon’s Hezbollah fired a guided missile at an Israeli tank to express “solidarity” with the Palestinian people. Israel responded by striking an observation post belonging to the Iran-backed group.
The violence marks the most serious escalation along the Lebanese-Israeli frontier since the 2006 conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. Hezbollah was founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982 to export its Islamic Revolution and fight Israeli forces that had invaded Lebanon.
The group has claimed that “Israel can’t even imagine the size of our arms stockpile.”
Syria
Israel’s Army is also scrambling to respond to artillery fire from Syria, which has stoked fears of another front opening in the war.
“Soldiers are responding with artillery and mortar shells toward the origin of the launching in Syria,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
The military said there had been “a number of launches from Syria into Israeli territory”.
The two countries have been at loggerheads since Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967. Its 1981 annexation of the strategic area is not recognised by the United Nations.
The current round of violence has barely started, but it could end up being the bloodiest in decades – perhaps since the war between Israel and the Palestinians in Lebanon during the 1980s.