The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah has met with top leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to discuss how to ‘achieve victory for the resistance against Israel’ in Gaza
Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV shared images of Hezbollah’s Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah having a meeting with Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri and Islamic Jihad chief Ziad al-Nakhala at an undisclosed location.
‘The meeting… assessed the positions taken internationally and what the Axis of Resistance must do’, a report by al-Manar said.
Their meeting has added to fears that the bitter conflict between Israel and Hamas could trigger the spread of war across the Middle East.
Experts have warned the region is teetering on the edge of a ‘deep and dangerous abyss’ as the spectre of war looms large.
Tor Wennesland, the UN’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said any escalation of violence may instantly alter the trajectory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the worse and drag the entire Middle East with it.
‘The events of the past days have served to reignite grievances and reanimate alliances across the region,’ he told the UN Security Council last week.
‘The risk of an expansion of this conflict is very, very real and extremely dangerous.’
Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, underscored the gravity of the situation, arguing that the complex regional dynamics mean the conflict could spiral out of control at a moment’s notice.
‘If this starts going bad, it could go bad in a lot of places simultaneously and very quickly. We are absolutely heading into a big unknown,’ he told the Washington Post.
In the wake of Hamas’ ruthless surprise attack on Israel on October 7, which claimed the lives of 1400 people, Israel responded with full fury, launching an incessant bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip that in turn has killed thousands of Palestinians.
More than two weeks on from the atrocities, Israel’s Defence Forces (IDF) have massed tens of thousands of troops, tanks and heavy armour along the border with Gaza ahead of what threatens to be a full-scale ground assault on the Palestinian enclave.
To Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, Israeli units have engaged with militants from Iran-backed Hezbollah, who have also fired rockets at Israel’s cities.
And now in Yemen, Houthi rebels have begun firing rockets of their own, last week forcing a US warship to blast the missiles out of the sky.
An invasion of Gaza looks imminent.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant last week urged his men to ‘be ready’ to move in, adding: ‘Whoever sees Gaza from afar now, will see it from the inside… It might take a week, a month, two months until we destroy them,’ he added, referring to Hamas.
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