Iran eskaliert seinen Mehrfrontenkrieg mit Israel

Der Iran und seine Verbündeten eskalieren den Konflikt mit Israel:

A week of attacks on Israel, including rockets fired from Lebanon, Gaza and Syria, represent the manifestation of an Iranian strategy to confront Israel with multiple threats on different fronts.

Although different groups may be behind the attacks in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, these groups are likely all linked to Iran. The groups involved include Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups that may go by different or new names, but which are proxies of Tehran.  

Iran has long sought to bring its conflict with Israel to Israel’s borders. Its backing of Hezbollah and Hamas was key to that strategy over the decades. For instance, Iran supplies Hamas with financial support and also helped it develop a larger rocket arsenal with longer ranges for its rockets. Whereas Hamas rockets once could only travel a few kilometers, now they can reach most parts of Israel.

Iran also supported Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is even more of an Iranian proxy than Hamas. The group not only has a rocket arsenal thought to include thousands of rockets, but it has gunmen in the West Bank and its leadership often resides in Damascus. (...)

Iran’s idea for a multi-front war is not new. It has been boasting in recent months about how Israel is internally collapsing and it has signaled that it wants to increase its threats. Iran’s IRGC said on Sunday that this year its power will grow compared to Israel. Israel also carried out drills in May 2022 in preparation for the threat of a multi-front war. At the time estimates said Israel’s adversaries could fire 1,500 rockets a day at Israel. 

Iran’s entrenchment in Syria

The multi-front war is made possible by Iran’s entrenchment in Syria. In the past Iran could threaten Israel using Hezbollah in Lebanon or PIJ in the West Bank and Gaza, and Hamas in Gaza. Israel has launched operations to neutralize the PIJ and Hamas threats in the past. Since last year Israel has also been battling PIJ gunmen in Jenin and other Palestinian factions that are emboldened against Israel. Israel has generally tried to isolate these threats, or manage these conflicts. Overall Israel has concentrated more heavily on the Iranian threat and containing Iranian entrenchment in Syria. This operation has been called the Campaign Between the Wars and it has gone on for many years, involving many airstrikes on sites in Syria. This has also involved larger operations such as Operation House of Cards in Syria in 2018. Islamic Jihad was also targeted in Syria in November 2019.