Israel’s Expanding War Theater: Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon”
From Gaza to Syria and Lebanon, Israel intensifies its military campaigns amid mounting civilian casualties and international silence.
Watan-Israel expanded its ground operations in northern Gaza yesterday, Friday, in a further escalation of its genocidal campaign against the Palestinians. This latest escalation included a massacre of medical crews in the town of Tel al-Sultan, the bombing of an UNRWA clinic in Jabalia, and the targeting of a school sheltering displaced persons. The resumed war was launched with a strike that killed 436 civilians, including 183 children and 94 women.
Israel also intensified its attacks on Syria. The day before yesterday, Thursday, it infiltrated Daraa province, clashed with local youth, and killed nine of them. It carried out airstrikes on Hama military airport, completely destroying it, and also bombed Homs airport, resulting in the deaths of four Syrian soldiers. It also targeted a research center in Damascus and a military site in the Kiswah area near the capital, with the attacks leaving dozens injured and wounded.
Lebanon also witnessed a continuation of the series of Israeli airstrikes, assassinations, and attacks in the south and in Beirut’s southern suburb. The latest Israeli army operation yesterday, Friday, was the assassination of Hassan Farhat, one of the leaders of Hamas, in an Israeli airstrike on his apartment in the city of Sidon in southern Lebanon, killing him along with his son and daughter.
Massacre of Medics and the Silence That Followed
A journalistic investigation into the medical crew massacre revealed the following: 15 bodies of civil defense and paramedic personnel, including one whose feet were tied and another that had been shot 20 times. These individuals were executed after being detained while trying to assist those injured by Israeli bombardments. Gideon Levy, a progressive journalist at Haaretz, commented on this massacre by comparing its aftermath to the Qana massacre, which brought an end to the “Grapes of Wrath” operation in Lebanon, and to the American My Lai massacre, which marked the beginning of a shift in American public opinion against the Vietnam War.
The difference, he notes, is that Israeli massacres have not sparked a shift in public opinion or halted the war. Instead, they have encouraged further massacres. As he puts it, this is a “never-ending massacre.” Are these massacres being carried out with American approval? According to another analysis, the resumption of the war and the ongoing genocidal operations are “ordered by Washington.” Evidence includes statements by Defense Minister Israel Katz about “increasing pressure on Hamas to concede in negotiations,” the disappearance of Steve Whitkoff (Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East who was overseeing the talks), and reports of Washington supplying Israel with the necessary weapons.
Alongside U.S. support for the ongoing criminal genocide against Palestinians, the human rights organization B’Tselem also highlights “European complicity.” This is evident in various forms—from the Israeli embassy in the UK attacking London Mayor Sadiq Khan for his Eid message to Muslims, which merely mentioned “the horrific suffering and ongoing killings in Sudan and Palestine” and referenced the death toll in Gaza; to German authorities expelling students who expressed solidarity with Gaza; and Hungary’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court in celebration of welcoming Netanyahu.
Gaza and the Normalization of Genocide: A Regional and International Failure
What is happening in Gaza represents a dangerous precedent set by Israel, as it combines openly committing acts of genocide with the absence of any meaningful reaction that would count as a response to crimes against humanity and war crimes—from the general public in Israel, the U.S., or Europe—as well as the complete lack of any significant Arab reaction.
It is clear that what is happening in Gaza is, first and foremost, linked to the wave of racist extremism represented by Netanyahu’s government, which has gone unchecked, reassured by the backing of the Trump administration. That same administration has taken on part of Israel’s war effort against the Houthis in Yemen and has begun threatening war with Iran.
Though the political circumstances in Syria (after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime) and in Lebanon (after the election of President Joseph Aoun and the formation of Nawaf Salam’s government) have changed, none of that alters the nature of Israel, which continues to practice state terrorism, destabilizing the region and sowing death, destruction, and ruin.
