Israel’s army is waging a “multi-front war,” the country’s defence minister said, hinting at military operations across the Middle East as the military conflict in Gaza showed new signs of dangerous regional escalation.
In a speech to parliament on Tuesday, Yoav Gallant said Israel is “under attack from seven theatres”: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria [the Israeli term for the West Bank], Iraq, Yemen and Iran.” He told the Knesset, without specifying:
“We have already responded and taken action in six of these theatres.”
Since Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October and took 240 people hostage, Israel has launched regular airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. The war has claimed the lives of some 1,200 Israelis and more than 20,600 Palestinians, while 85 per cent of the Palestinian territory’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced.
Fighting in the 41 kilometres by 12 kilometres (25 miles by 7 miles) territory intensified after a seven-day truce collapsed in early December. On Tuesday, Israeli troops continued shelling refugee camps in the centre of the strip for a fourth day, in a clear sign of a promised expansion of the offensive.
Gaza’s health ministry said Tuesday that a total of 241 people have been killed and 382 injured in the past 24 hours, about 70 per cent of the dead were women and children.
Gallant’s comments came as the war in Gaza threatened to spill beyond Israel and the Palestinian territories on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Egypt said a drone had been shot down near the Red Sea resort town of Dahab, the second such incident in a month.
Late Tuesday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for a missile attack on a container ship in the Red Sea and an attempt to attack Israel with drones. MSC Mediterranean Shipping said no crew members were injured in the attack on its vessel United VIII, which was travelling from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan.
On Saturday, the US Defence Department directly blamed Iran for a drone attack on a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean.
In Iraq, the US has bombed three sites linked to Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia it blames for a drone strike that injured three US soldiers in the northern city of Erbil. The airstrikes drew sharp condemnation from the Iraqi government.
