As hostilities expand across Israel’s borders, a clear pattern is emerging: the Iranian regime, through its regional proxy network, is orchestrating and escalating violence against Israel on multiple fronts. Iran’s support has enabled terrorist organizations such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen to launch coordinated campaigns, aiming to weaken Israel’s security and upend the regional status quo.
At the heart of this campaign is Tehran’s longstanding effort to use proxy forces to achieve strategic goals without direct confrontation. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force arms and finances groups committed to Israel’s destruction and US regional retrenchment. This strategy, pursued since Iran’s 1979 revolution, has taken on new urgency since the October 7, 2023 terrorist massacre—the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust—when Hamas terrorists breached the border, murdering over 1,200 Israeli civilians, injuring thousands more, and abducting men, women, and children into the Gaza Strip.
That massacre marked the beginning of a wider war. Hezbollah soon opened a front in northern Israel, firing rockets and anti-tank missiles at Israeli towns and military posts. Iranian-backed militias in Syria and Iraq attempted attacks on Israeli and US assets. The Houthis in Yemen extended the campaign by launching drones and missiles at Israel and international shipping in the Red Sea, threatening global trade. Intelligence from Western and Israeli sources points to Iranian coordination, funding, and supply of advanced weaponry, including precision missiles and drones, across these fronts.
Israel’s military response has been robust and multilateral. Operation Iron Swords, Israel’s campaign to dismantle Hamas’s infrastructure in Gaza and secure the release of hostages, aims to neutralize the terrorist military threat while minimizing civilian harm—a difficult task, given terror groups’ deliberate use of civilians as human shields. Israeli forces have discovered extensive tunnel networks dug beneath schools, hospitals, and residential buildings, complicating their efforts to surgically target military assets while adhering to international law.
On the northern border, the Israel Defense Forces have reinforced positions and conducted targeted strikes on Hezbollah assets, focusing on command centers, rocket launch sites, and weapons depots. The potential for a broader war with Hezbollah—estimated to hold over 150,000 Iranian-made rockets—remains a constant concern for Israeli defense planners.
The Iranian regime’s strategy is not simply to destabilize Israel but to challenge the US-backed order in the Middle East. Through its proxies, Tehran seeks to undermine moderate Arab regimes, prevent further normalization (such as those mandated by the Abraham Accords), and gain leverage in nuclear negotiations with the West. The ongoing conflict threatens to reverse progress made towards Arab-Israel rapprochement, inflame tensions, and provoke further instability across the region.
A persistent challenge in media coverage and international forums is the tendency to draw equivalence between Israeli national defense operations and the actions of terror groups that deliberately attack civilians. Many international voices call for symmetrical exchanges between Israeli hostages—innocent men, women, children abducted and frequently abused by Hamas—and convicted terrorists held in Israeli prisons for lethal attacks on civilians. This false equivalence obscures the ethical and legal realities: Israel faces existential threats from groups with genocidal aims, while adhering to the principles of self-defense and proportionality codified in international law.
The wider context of the conflict must not be overlooked. Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has called for Israel’s destruction as a point of state policy. Unlike former adversarial Arab states that have engaged in peace processes or normalization, Iran prefers sustained military pressure via proxies—ensuring both plausible deniability and perpetual instability. Advanced weapons manufacturing, training, and financial support from Tehran allow terror networks to maintain and innovate their arsenals, from long-range missiles to precision drones and cyber warfare.
Israel’s operations in Gaza and beyond are a reflection of the scale and urgency of this threat. The rescue of hostages remains a national imperative, even as Hamas and other groups attempt to leverage their captivity for propaganda and coercion. While Israel’s actions are often scrutinized by international organizations, the basic truth remains: the IDF’s objective is to protect its citizens from annihilation, not to harm Gaza’s residents, whose suffering is an intended consequence of Hamas’s policies of human shielding and violence.
The moral responsibility for continued bloodshed rests with those who launch attacks from within civilian populations and hold innocents captive as bargaining chips. Iran’s broader regional dimension ensures that the war’s outcome will shape not just the future security of Israel, but the stability and direction of the Middle East as a whole. Western support—military, diplomatic, and moral—remains vital for defending international norms against systematic violations by Iranian-backed terror organizations.
As the war continues, the facts remain clear: Israel is battling not only Hamas in Gaza but an entire axis of resistance mobilized and supplied by the Iranian regime. The survival of Israel, the integrity of the broader region, and the future of international order hinge on the ability to recognize and confront this reality. Only by naming and addressing the orchestrators of terror can there be hope for a Middle East defined by peace and security, rather than perpetual violence.
