According to a political scientist, Iran’s involvement in the Israel-Gaza dispute could expand into a larger Middle East battle.
Palestinians gather in Gaza City on October 21, 2023, near the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing confrontation between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist party Hamas. Mutasem Murtaja/Reuters
Ian Bremmer, a political scientist and the founder of Eurasia Group, warned that if Iran becomes directly involved in the crisis, it has the potential to expand into a larger and substantially more deadly Middle East conf lict.
According to Bremmer, the ongoing confrontation between Israel and Gaza is at risk of worsening as new fronts open up.”There will be a ground war.” It’s a horrible idea for a variety of reasons. It will kill a large number of Palestinian civilians in a short period of time or without allowing the Palestinians to flee. “There will be a global backlash,” he said.
“It is quite possible that Hezbollah which is much more militarily capable and supported by Iran could get directly involved in the fighting,” he said.
Meanwhile, leaders and high-ranking officials from the Middle East and Europe will meet in Cairo on Saturday with the primary goal of securing the free flow of assistance supplies into Gaza and preventing the Israel-Hamas war from escalating into a wider regional conflict.
According to a Bloomberg article, the Iran-backed Hezbollah claimed to have carried out missile strikes on various areas within Israel, as revealed by the militant group via its Al Manar TV channel.
In response, the Israeli military acknowledged around 20 missile launches from Lebanon into Israel, as well as the firing of multiple anti-tank missiles against border military stations. There were no reported casualties, and Israel retaliated with artillery fire.
As a deterrence, the US has deployed two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean, expressly targeting Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, both of which are Hamas allies. Furthermore, France has given a direct warning to Hezbollah, telling them not to become involved.
Israel issued an evacuation order for the northern town of Kiryat Shmona on Friday, affecting around 25,000 people. This decision came after wreckage from an intercepted rocket dropped onto a school playground in the town on Wednesday, as recounted by local Lianne Abutbul to AFP.
In response to Hamas’s October 7th strike, Israel launched an ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip, forcing the mobilization of an unprecedented 360,000 reservists. Unfortunately, the assault has resulted inconsiderable loss of life, with an estimated 1,400 victims, the majority of whom were civilians
According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 4,137 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, have died and 13,000 have been injured in Gaza. According to the United Nations, over one million people have been displaced from their homes as a result of the ongoing fighting.