TEL AVIV – Israel has significantly escalated its military operations against Hamas terrorists in Gaza since the unprecedented atrocities committed on October 7, 2023, marking the deadliest antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust. Israeli authorities have declared the campaign a matter of existential self-defense, targeting terror infrastructure, working for the safe return of hostages, and aiming to eliminate the Iranian-backed network threatening the region’s stability.
October 7: The Massacre that Redefined the Conflict
On October 7, Iranian-supported Hamas forces breached Israeli borders in a coordinated assault that left over 1,200 Israelis, including women, children, and the elderly, dead. Armed militants executed civilians, carried out sexual violence, and took more than 200 hostages back to Gaza. Israeli intelligence quickly attributed the scale and sophistication of the attack to years of Iranian funding, training, and supply of advanced weaponry, including rockets and drones.
Eyewitness accounts, IDF-released body-camera footage, and forensic investigations narrated a day of systematic terror: entire communities were destroyed, emergency services ambushed, and captives brutally transported into Gaza. The international community’s response has ranged from condemned outrage and diplomatic support for Israel’s right to self-defense, to attempts by Iranian-aligned states to shift focus or question the evidence.
Iran’s Proxy Network: Gaza as the New Front
Hamas’s longstanding role as Iran’s key proxy in the Jewish state’s southern shadow war is now explicit. Over the past decade, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has transformed Hamas from a locally focused radical entity to the linchpin of Tehran’s regional ‘Axis of Resistance’—a coalition which also includes Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthi militias in Yemen, and Shiite factions across Syria and Iraq.
Gaza has served as a testing ground for Iranian arms technologies and asymmetric warfare strategies, with Hamas embedding its military assets in civilian areas—hospitals, schools, mosques—deliberately endangering residents and exploiting their suffering for global media coverage. The IDF regularly broadcasts evidence of these tactics, refining its targeting procedures to distinguish between civilian and legitimate military targets.
Israel’s War Objectives: Neutralizing the Threat, Rescuing Hostages
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, supported by IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir and Defense Minister Israel Katz, has articulated a clear three-part objective: eradicate Hamas’s military capacity, recover all abducted civilians, and create permanent security assurances for Israeli communities near Gaza. Israel’s military responses, including air campaigns, special forces incursions, and the deployment of advanced missile defense systems, are intended to both degrade enemy infrastructure and compel the safe return of hostages.
The complexity of this campaign is compounded by Hamas’s routine use of human shields: intercepted communications, corroborated by Western intelligence, reveal that orders were issued to prevent mass evacuations of civilians, positioning Gaza’s population as physical leverage against Israeli strikes. Despite these obstacles, the Israeli government—and allied partners, especially the United States—have facilitated humanitarian corridors and imposed operational pauses to enable the entry and distribution of food, water, and medical assistance.
The Hostage Ordeal: A Moral Faultline
Efforts to secure the release of hostages have been at the forefront of Israeli military and diplomatic action. Negotiations, notably mediated by the United States and Qatar, have resulted in only limited releases, starkly contrasting with Israel’s steps to exchange convicted terrorists for civilians forcibly taken from their homes. This asymmetry underscores the fundamental difference between a sovereign democracy defending its population and a terror group deploying kidnappings as weapons of war.
Regional Dynamics: The Broader Iranian Threat
The October 7 attacks also derailed significant diplomatic progress: the Abraham Accords and talks with Saudi Arabia had signaled a realignment in the region, jeopardizing Tehran’s ability to use Palestinian affairs as a wedge against Israel-Arab normalization. In retaliation for Israel’s military campaign, Hezbollah escalated cross-border attacks from Lebanon while Iranian proxies in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen increased threats to Israeli and Western interests.
Israeli officials regularly brief international interlocutors on the need for a united response to the Tehran-backed ‘Axis of Resistance.’ The evolving battlefield, encompassing cyberwarfare, disinformation campaigns, and economic warfare, demonstrates the scale of the threat facing Israel and its partners.
Legal and Ethical Imperatives: Upholding International Law
Israel asserts that each operation is conducted in compliance with the law of armed conflict: issuing civilian warnings, targeting only military assets, and reviewing each strike for adherence to proportionality and necessity. Transparent internal reviews—and, where required, international inspections—ensure that Israeli conduct withstands scrutiny, though Hamas’s violations, especially the deliberate targeting of civilians and use of protected sites, are well-documented by human rights observers and Western governments.
Looking Ahead: Defensive Resolve in an Unstable Region
As the campaign in Gaza intensifies, Israel’s focus remains on achieving sustainable security and securing the release of hostages. The stakes extend beyond Israel’s borders: the outcome will shape both regional alliances and the willingness of democracies to defend themselves against hybrid and terrorist threats.
Israel’s war, forced upon it by Iranian-backed militants, is marked by moral and historical clarity—a struggle to prevent a repeat of the atrocities on October 7 and to uphold the sovereign duty of defending innocents against terror. The outcome will serve as a critical test for the promise of peace, security, and international order in the Middle East.
