Israel’s Gaza War Expands To Lebanon, Iraq; Enters Fourth Month

Israel’s Gaza war has entered its fourth month on January 7 this year leading to a death toll of more than 22,500.The entire Gaza strip has been devastated by the Israeli bombings. Apart, the Israel Defence Forces have targeted areas of both Lebanon and Iraq giving the war against the Palestinians a regional dimension in the West Asia.

Backed by full support from US president Joe Biden and his NATO allies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become desperate to not only finish Hamas militants from the Gaza strip and carry out the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from the occupied area, he is openly threatening to teach lessons to those who have stood by Hamas. Israel is now running a proxy war in the region against Iran also.

US state secretary Antony Blinken is continuously visiting the middle east region and claims that he is talking with the regional powers for bringing about a ceasefire, but the sources in Washington confirm that the rightwing of the Democratic Party is equally interested along with the Republicans to make use of this occasion to bring about a change in the West Asian order that will isolate Iran and its friends in the region.. Israel wants some more time to achieve its objective of ethnic cleansing. That is being given by both the President Biden and the US secretary of state Antony Blinken, despite massive pressure in America from the people for organizing immediate ceasefire.

On New Year’s Day, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir declared, again, that “Encouraging the residents of Gaza to emigrate to the countries of the world is a solution we must advance.” This was seconded by the Israeli finance minister who said that every Palestinian must go out of Gaza because Israel cannot tolerate two million people next door who wake up every morning with the aspiration of the destruction of Israel.

The U.S. State Department criticized the two ministers, calling their genocidal rhetoric “irresponsible.” Ben-Gvir shot back, “I really admire the United States of America but with all due respect, we are not another star in the American flag.” In fact what the two ministers have said is the conviction of the Israeli defence forces who are participating in the war. Prime Minister Netanyahu is a captive of the IDF and he is under threat that any other policy other than full scale eviction of Palestinians from Gaza, will be opposed by the IDF. Netanyahu is reported to have explained that to Blinken during his latest discussions.

Last week, Israeli drone-delivered missiles struck the Lebanese capital of Beirut in targeted assassinations of a number of top Hamas officials. Senior among them was Saleh al-Arouri, a former leader of the Qassam Brigades and the person responsible for coordinating Hamas’ military and political activities outside of Gaza. Earlier Israeli PM assured the US president that the Israeli forces would not carry out any missions outside the Gaza strip in any other countries of the region, but the IDF pressure persuaded the PM to endorse all the actions outside the war zone in the recent days.

David Barnea, chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, indicated that more such strikes should be expected. Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Hezbollah group in Lebanon, vowed that the killing would not go “without response and without punishment.” He said that if Israel launches a war on Lebanon, his group is prepared for a “fight without limits.” This means that there is every possibility of the war tuning into a full scale war between Israel and Lebanon if there is no big pressure from the Americans to stop such assassinations by the Mossad and IDF.

Already, the Israelis have killed 120 people inside Lebanon while attacking the Hezbollas. On Wednesday, a pair of explosions in Kerman, Iran, at a memorial for Qasem Soleimani, a general assassinated by the U.S. in 2020, killed dozens. The government there quickly blamed Israel and the U.S. for the bombing, but the Islamic State terrorist group eventually claimed credit.

Further on Christmas Day, Israel assassinated another Iranian general in Syria, Sayyed Razi Mousavi. An Israeli statement called him an “arms smuggler,” while Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Israel would “pay the price” for its attack. There is no restraint by IDF now. They have got some time and they are trying to make full use of that by killings.

In Baghdad on Wednesday, U.S. military drones killed three Iraqi security officials with supposed links to Iran. The Iraqi government denounced the U.S., calling the strike a “flagrant violation of the sovereignty and security of Iraq” and “no different from a terrorist act.” Several Iraqi political parties are calling for the immediate expulsion of the 2,500 U.S. troops stationed in the country.

The latest is the attacks on ships in Red Sea by the Yemen related Houthis. The ship owners including the big exporters in the US are upset and the Wall Street sources say that there is a big pressure on President Biden to take on Iran through Israel. This, if it takes place, will be a dangerous development as Iran is a nuclear power and Russia and China will not be silent. The international opinion including the United Nations have to intervene before things move in that direction. For West Asia, the short term future is grim The Sanders group in the US Democratic Party along with the peace forces in the US have to assert effectively to persuade President Biden for an immediate ceasefire. Otherwise, it will lead to a full scale war in West Asia. (IPA Service)