Senior Iraqi defense officials and the Pentagon are still negotiating how best to reorganize and reduce the size of US and international forces, but they haven’t made a decision yet. There is debate within the Iraqi government, with some close to Iran calling for an early withdrawal of US forces and others, including many Iraqi defense officials, favoring a more limited, longer-term US presence.
About 2,500 American soldiers are stationed in Syria, where the Islamic State has resumed its activities, and another 900 are in Iraq.
Israeli paramedics said that seven people were hurt in the strikes, including a driver who was hit by shrapnel and crashed his car, leaving him critically injured. According to the Israeli military, an Israeli interceptor missile that failed to hit its objective caused minor injuries to Israeli civilians.
Since the start of the Gaza War, Israel and Hezbollah have been attacking each other. However, as the region prepares for what could be a massive Iran-led response to the killing of Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah military commander, in Beirut last week and the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader, in Tehran, tensions are particularly high.
Hezbollah and Hamas are two of Iran’s proxies. They have threatened to avenge the deaths, and their promise has sparked wild conjecture about when and how they will launch their attack. In an attempt to stop the escalation from turning into a possibly catastrophic war, diplomats have hurriedly intervened.
Lebanese foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib informed reporters on Tuesday that the country’s officials had attempted to talk with Hezbollah about a suitable response that wouldn’t lead to conflict. However, he claimed that the choice was “bigger than Lebanon” in the wake of the Tehran incident.
“We are striving to ensure that any reaction does not lead us to complete conflict,” Mr. Bou Habib stated during an Egyptian press conference. “Neither Israel nor any state would profit from that.”
Israelis were being cautious in the interim because of the unpredictability near the border. Air raid sirens could be heard on Tuesday as far south as Acre, which is more than nine miles from the Lebanon border. Hezbollah opened fire on Israel from Lebanon on October 8 following the onslaught in Gaza conducted by Hamas that started the conflict. Israel has retaliated by striking in Lebanon on multiple occasions, forcing nearly 150,000 people to escape their homes on both sides of the border.
Experts and diplomats have cautioned time and time again that a mistake might cause the situation to get out of hand and risk escalating into something more dangerous. When a missile from Lebanon struck a packed soccer field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights in late July, killing twelve children and teenagers and injuring several more, fears increased.
Hezbollah, which denied culpability for the attack, was held accountable by Israel and the US. However, Hezbollah claimed in a statement at around the same time that it had opened fire on a nearby Israeli military base in the Golan Heights.
A few days later, Mr. Shukr was killed by an Israeli airstrike that struck a building in southern Beirut, and Mr. Haniyeh was later assassinated by an explosion in Tehran. Regarding Mr. Haniyeh’s passing, Israel has refrained from making public comments, but U.S. officials have confirmed in private that it was involved.
The assassination of the Hamas commander in Tehran is expected to result in “harsh punishment,” according to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran. Iran fired 300 missiles and drones toward Israel in April in retaliation for an Israeli strike that targeted senior Iranian generals in Damascus; the majority of the missiles were intercepted or missed their targets.
Certain observers have suggested that factions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank with Iranian support may also play a role in retribution strikes. During the last ten months, more than 500 Palestinians have died in the West Bank, the majority of them in gunfights with Israeli police.According to Palestinian officials, 11 individuals were killed by Israeli forces during a raid on Palestinian villages in the West Bank on Tuesday, including a 14-year-old kid. As per the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry, five individuals lost their lives in an Israeli aerial strike on a car in Jenin. According to the Israeli military, “armed terrorist cells” were the target of their airstrikes.
