Attacks on Syria – The danger of an expansion of the Gaza war is growing

As the military announced on Saturday, warplanes, in combination with ground troops and flanked by the navy, “attacked terrorist cells and infrastructure in several areas” in the Gaza Strip. The troops fought ‘fierce’ battles with terrorists. The Israeli army then announced a four-hour humanitarian pause in fighting at a camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Military activities there would be temporarily halted for humanitarian reasons, an army spokesman said in Arabic on the X platform (formerly Twitter) on Saturday. This should allow the population to get more supplies.

There is hardly any room left for internally displaced people
The Israeli army had earlier urged residents of the hotly contested town of Khan Yunis in the southern coastal region to seek safety in Rafah, near the Egyptian border. Thousands of Palestinians are reportedly sheltering in tents there.

According to the UN, after Israeli attacks have spread to the central part of the Gaza Strip, there is hardly any room left for internally displaced people. The city of Rafah, for example, is “bursting at the seams,” the Gaza director of the Palestinian aid organization UNRWA, Thomas White, criticized a few days ago.

Two rockets crashed in Israel
In addition, the Israeli military said on Saturday evening that two rockets had crashed in open areas “in northern Israel” after an air raid siren sounded. The army is now taking action against the origin of the shelling. At least nine fighters from pro-Iranian militias have been killed in suspected US airstrikes in Syria, activists say.

At least 27 others were injured, some seriously, the opposition-affiliated Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in London, said on Saturday. The attacks targeted militia posts and one of their convoys in eastern Syria, near the border with Iraq. Three Syrians were among the dead. The US military initially did not comment on the attacks.

Since the start of the Gaza war, the US military has repeatedly attacked targets in these countries following attacks by pro-Iranian militias on US forces in Iraq and Syria. There have been more than a hundred such attacks since the war began. The security situation in the entire region is very tense. The danger that the war in Gaza will spread is growing.

Israel has barely responded to the attacks in Syria
The Israeli army has not told the AFP news agency where exactly the rockets fell. Israel considers the annexed Golan Heights part of its northern district. An Israeli attack on Thursday targeted the capital Damascus, according to the Syrian Defense Ministry and Syrian state media.

In general, Israel hardly comments on individual attacks in Syria. But it repeatedly emphasizes that it will not allow its arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria. Tehran is allied with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

To the background
The war was sparked by the worst massacre in Israel’s history on October 7, when terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups killed about 1,200 people in Israel and abducted about 240 others to the Gaza Strip. Israel responded with massive air strikes and a ground offensive. The number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war has risen to 21,507, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Authority. The number cannot be independently verified at this time.

Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has fired hundreds of times from the air into the neighboring country. The attacks are mainly aimed at the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, which is supported by Iran, but also against positions of the Syrian army. Since the start of the war against the radical Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas, which is an ally of Hezbollah, almost three months ago, Israel has intensified air strikes in Syria.