The current war against Israel was initiated by the radical Islamic organization Hamas, together with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, when thousands of their terrorists and supporters crossed the boundary from the Gaza Strip into Israel at dawn on October 7th.
In a few hours, they perpetuated the worst massacre against Jews since the Holocaust, sowing carnage, and destruction on some 20 rural communities, killing, raping, mutilating, looting and kidnapping people of all ages, gender, and nationalities. Simultaneously, Hamas fired, and is continuing to fire, rockets, and missiles at civilian populations in towns and cities all over Israel.
Moreover, Iranian proxies are looking to join the ongoing aggression, with daily attempts by Hezbollah to attack from Lebanon and alarming instances of violence by Iran-backed militias in Syria, as well as by the Houthi militia in Yemen.
Who are the belligerents and what is their declared objective?
● Hamas seized full control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 and is governing it following the ideology of the Islamic caliphate. The founding Hamas charter explicitly states its antisemitic agenda of exterminating the Jews. The October 7 carnage demonstrated that it is more than willing to surpass even the atrocities of ISIS in pursuit of this cause. Hamas’s first aim is to annihilate Israel, and then to foster the expansion of the Islamic Jihad. Hamas enjoys wide support among the Gazan population, which gave it a majority in the 2006 elections.
● Hezbollah is a fundamentalist Shiite organization that has an overwhelming influence in Lebanon, ruling over most of the southern part of the country up to the capital Beirut, controlling broad sections of the economy and playing a dominant role in the political arena. Hezbollah possesses an arsenal of over 150,000 rockets, all aimed at Israel. It periodically attacks Israel with rockets and missiles and sends terrorists to try to infiltrate into Israel on the northern border. Its aim is to destroy Israel.
● Iran: The common feature of Hamas, the PIJ, Hezbollah, the Houthis and other militias in Syria and Iraq is that they are all Iranian proxies. The Iranian Ayatollah regime sustains all these organizations with financial and military means—weapons, expertise, and training—as well as political clout. It is openly committed to the annihilation of Israel and to the expansion of the Islamic Revolution worldwide.
Israel has no territorial claims in either Gaza or in Lebanon. Israel and Iran are more than 2,000 km apart. There is no territorial dispute between them. Israel is confronted with an existential threat by a coalition of enemies aiming to annihilate it. Israel is the only Jewish state in the world and the only democracy in the region—a beacon of universal human values and civil liberties in a violent neighborhood. Israel strives for peace with all its neighbors and has achieved peaceful coexistence and thriving partnerships with several Arab and Muslim countries.
Today, Israel is under attack and must fight to survive and to prevail over its enemies. The wide support of the free world of Israel’s right to self-defense reflects the understanding that if Israel falls, the West will be next.
By Aviel Avraham
Deputy Chief of Mission
Embassy of Israel, Accra