- Iran-backed groups praise missile strikes on Israel
- Hezbollah weakened by Israeli assassinations
- Houthis emerge as key threat in Red Sea
Armed terrorist groups in Iran’s “axis of resistance” have praised Tehran’s launch of more than a hundred missiles against Israeli targets on Tuesday, calling for additional attacks.
The statements from groups in Lebanon, Gaza, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen highlight the regional scope of the current crisis. However, analysts say that many key members of the Iranian-backed coalition have been so weakened over the last year that their ability to translate rhetorical threats into real danger to Israel has been limited.
Tuesday’s attack on Israel came after a series of devastating Israeli strikes on Iran’s partner Hezbollah in Lebanon, including the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the commander of the Shia Islamist militia and a towering figure in Iran’s regional combat network.
Hamas, the Iran-backed terrorist organization in Gaza whose surprise attack on Israel last October sparked the crisis, applauded the Iranian missile strikes, claiming they avenged Israeli assassinations of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian commanders in recent months.
We congratulate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on its heroic rocket launch on large areas of our occupied territories in response to the occupation’s ongoing crimes against the peoples of the region and in retaliation for the blood of our nation’s heroic martyrs, according to the group.
Yahya Saree, a spokesperson for the Houthis, an Iran-backed organization that controls parts of Yemen, “commended” Iran and warned to “widen its operations against the Israeli enemy or those backing them” unless a cease-fire in Gaza was established. The group has launched scores of rockets at Israel and targeted international commerce in the Red Sea.
Edmund Fitton-Brown, a senior consultant to the Counter-Extremism Project, a transnational think tank and advocacy organization, said the threats from the Houthis and other groups were anticipated.
“It’s important to avoid reading too much into hyperbole… Palestinian factions lack the power to escalate outside of the [occupied] West Bank, but Israelis have been so successful in recent weeks that I doubt Lebanese Hezbollah will defend Iran.
Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful proxy and the coalition’s backbone, is reeling from the Israeli assassination campaign.
Since last October, when it began firing into Israel in support of its friend, Hamas, the group has lost about 500 fighters and has been trapped in a prolonged battle of attrition.
A thousand members were injured by exploding pagers and walkie-talkies in an attack suspected to be carried out by the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, and hundreds more are believed to have perished as a result of Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon during the last week. Many of Hezbollah’s key military officials have been killed, including Nasrallah, who is deemed irreplaceable.
Iran had long anticipated that Hezbollah’s vast rocket arsenal and tens of thousands of experienced fighters would dissuade Israel from launching a major attack against Iran, potentially targeting Tehran’s nuclear program.
Alia Brahimi, a Middle East researcher at the Atlantic Council, stated that Iran’s decades-long goal of assembling a network of ideologically allied proxies had been vindicated.
“Iran feels under attack right now, and these are throwaway components of its arsenal. They did what they were supposed to do and served as a protective shield,” Brahimi explained.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah claimed to have fired on Israel’s Mossad headquarters and an airbase in a Tel Aviv neighbourhood. The organization has deployed surface-to-air missiles to shoot down or chase off Israeli drones on many occasions, including within the last week.
The Houthis fired a ballistic missile at Israel’s main airport on Saturday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from a speech at the United Nations in New York. The following day, Israel conducted its largest operation against the organization, targeting the port city of Hodeidah.
According to Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen expert at the Crisis Group, the Houthis were considered a fringe component of the Axis before the Gaza conflict.
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That changed when the Houthis began targeting ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden on their route to the Suez Canal.
“Over the past year, the Houthis have taken centre stage,” Nagi told the BBC.
According to Faozi al-Goidi, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, the Houthis are unlikely to back down anytime soon. They may target vessels further out in the Indian Ocean.
They may also want to “partner with other militias to build an alliance that would threaten regional security,” al-Goidi added.
Following the apparent Israeli operation targeting Hezbollah pagers, observers said that pagers exploded in Syria and Yemen, injuring 40 individuals, highlighting the group’s and Iran’s regional networks.
There are also major Iran-backed militia organizations in Iraq, which have generally survived, and in Syria, where they have suffered some losses.
Israel Strikes Central Beirut as Hezbollah Resists in Southern Lebanon
