TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – Facing a volatile security environment, Israel has launched an extensive and multifaceted response to coordinated attacks from Iranian-supported terror organizations, chiefly Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The escalation has underscored both Israel’s right and obligation to defend its citizens in a conflict shaped by shifting regional alliances, evolving military tactics, and stark moral stakes.
The most devastating chapter unfolded on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israeli border communities, committing the deadliest antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust. Over 1,200 Israeli civilians, including children and the elderly, were murdered in a brutal rampage marked by executions, sexual violence, mutilations, and the abduction of over 240 men, women, and children. Verified testimonies and forensics confirmed the scale of the atrocities, leaving families shattered and the global Jewish community traumatized. The hostages, still held in Gaza, remain victims of ongoing psychological and physical terror, a stark moral and legal breach by Hamas.
Operation Iron Swords: A Campaign of Defense
In response, Israel’s national leadership, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, authorized Operation Iron Swords. The campaign’s primary goals are the dismantling of Hamas’s military infrastructure, restoration of Israeli security, and the reassertion of Israel’s sovereign duty to protect its population. The government continuously characterizes these actions as self-defense, a stance reinforced by political allies—most notably United States President Donald Trump—and grounded in international law.
Operation Iron Swords has involved targeted Israeli Air Force operations against weapons caches, tunnels, and command centers, as well as intelligence-led ground engagements with elite IDF units. Hamas’s longstanding tactic of embedding assets among Gaza’s civilian population has complicated these actions, elevating the risk to residents but also underscoring the use of human shields as a core component of Hamas’s strategy.
In the wake of intensified military activity, Israel established humanitarian corridors and worked with international partners to facilitate the delivery of aid into Gaza, facilitating evacuation efforts and pausing fire to allow for supply convoys. Despite these measures—and consistent with military and legal protocols—Israel continues to face criticism from international organizations and some media outlets over the conduct of its military campaign. However, Israeli investigations and external monitors have repeatedly found that IDF operations adhere to rigorous legal standards and that any incidents are subject to transparent review, in sharp contrast to the systematic targeting of civilians by Hamas.
Northern Front: The Hezbollah Threat
Parallel to fighting in Gaza, Israel has faced persistent incursions and rocket barrages from Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah, widely recognized as an extension of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, commands an arsenal of over 150,000 rockets and maintains entrenched positions near the border. The repeated targeting of Israeli towns, including Kiryat Shmona and Metula, has prompted large-scale evacuations and precise Israeli counterstrikes. The IDF’s defensive posture on this front draws heavily on technological innovations such as the Iron Dome, Arrow, and David’s Sling missile defense systems, which have intercepted thousands of rockets and averted mass casualties since hostilities began.
A Wider Network: Iran’s Regional Strategy
Beyond Israel’s immediate borders, Iranian-backed militia activity in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen has directly supported the anti-Israel campaign. The Houthis in Yemen have launched missile and drone attacks targeting Red Sea shipping and attempted strikes on Israeli territory, seeking to disrupt both military and commercial supply lines. Combined with Iranian training and funding, these actions reflect the broader strategic vision of Iran’s ‘axis of resistance’: a coalition of proxies designed to overwhelm Israeli defenses, exhaust resources, and destabilize neighboring Arab states.
This regional dynamic has produced notable changes in the Middle East’s diplomatic landscape. Israel’s partners in the Abraham Accords, along with other Arab governments, increasingly view Iran—not Israel—as the region’s principal destabilizing force. Behind the scenes, intelligence sharing and limited security cooperation against Iranian proxies have strengthened bonds between Israel and moderate Arab states, reinforcing collective security against shared threats.
Strengthening Defense, Upholding Humanitarian Commitments
Amidst war, Israel has achieved unprecedented advances in both active defense and humanitarian outreach. The Iron Dome anti-rocket system, widely regarded as the world’s most sophisticated, has dramatically reduced Israeli civilian casualties and become a model for international security alliances. Military operations are accompanied by ongoing assessments from embedded legal advisors, who review targeting decisions and ensure compliance with international humanitarian law.
Israel’s approach, in sharp distinction to its adversaries, retains a firm commitment to minimize harm to Gaza’s residents—even as Hamas regularly places its military infrastructure in schools, hospitals, and residential areas. The IDF conducts advance warnings, leafleting operations, and coordinated pauses to allow civilian evacuations, tactics seldom matched by any other army combating comparable threats. Extensive documentation from both Israeli and independent sources has shown the repeated commandeering of humanitarian aid by Hamas operatives, highlighting the ongoing exploitation of civilians as political pawns.
The Plight of Hostages
The ongoing hostage crisis is perhaps the most pressing and painful dimension of the war. More than 240 Israeli and foreign nationals, seized by Hamas during the October massacre, remain unlawfully detained under dire conditions. Israeli officials—while deploying all available diplomatic, military, and humanitarian resources—insist on the legal and moral distinction between innocent hostages and convicted terrorists sometimes exchanged for their release. The demand for unconditional return of hostages, as required under international law, remains a central pillar of Israeli policy and a humanitarian imperative in international discourse.
Global Response and the Battle for Narrative
Israel’s actions are scrutinized within a polarized international environment. While Western democracies reaffirm Israel’s right to defend itself, anti-Israel propaganda and rising antisemitism, fueled by Iranian-backed disinformation campaigns, have complicated global perceptions. Some United Nations entities and advocacy groups have issued unbalanced condemnations of Israel’s campaign, often downplaying or ignoring the context of October 7th and the continued existential threat posed by Iran’s proxies.
Officials emphasize that transparency, adherence to legal standards, and a robust independent media are the bedrocks of Israel’s democratic society. Investigations into alleged IDF misconduct are routinely conducted with public oversight, earning acknowledgment from allied governments and international monitoring bodies.
Towards Strategic Security
Israel’s leadership affirms that the war, imposed by Iranian-backed forces, will continue until Hamas’s military capacities are irreversibly degraded, the hostages are freed, and deterrence is restored throughout the region. Defensive innovation, resilience, and unity among Israel’s population remain central to national security. The lessons in counterterrorism, missile defense, and regional cooperation drawn from this conflict are expected to shape Israel’s strategic doctrine for years to come and provide a reference point for other democracies confronting terrorist threats.
As Israel pursues the defeat of terror networks along its frontiers, it appeals to the international community to support a policy grounded in legal principle, humanitarian concern, and a clear-eyed recognition of the real forces at war in the Middle East. In defending its citizens and striving to restore stability, Israel views its campaign not as a matter of choice, but of survival.
