The war in Gaza is perceived internationally as a limited affair, pitting Israel against the Islamist Hamas organisation within the confines of a narrow strip of territory on the Mediterranean coast. This view has long been reductive. A number of other fronts are active as a result of the outbreak of war in Gaza. And one of them – Lebanon – is currently showing signs of erupting into full conflict.
In November, the Yemeni Ansar Allah (Houthis) movement commenced their targeting of shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. In the same month, the Iran-allied Shia militias in Iraq began attacks on Israel, and on US and allied forces in Iraq and Syria. Today, if one includes the West Bank where militias armed by smuggling routes from Syria across Jordan engage sporadically against the IDF, there are five active fronts in this war: Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen (or the Gulf of Aden).
Hezbollah is a vastly more powerful organisation than Hamas
For most of the last eight months, the scale and intensity of the fighting in Gaza has eclipsed these other zones of engagement.
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