Last week, the leader of the terrorist group Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, and expected replacement leader of Hezbollah, Hashem Safieddine, were both killed by Israeli forces as Israel continues to intensify its attack on both terrorist groups.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed along with two other terrorists in a building after Israeli soldiers saw the terrorists enter the building and ordered a strike against it. Israel claims that the 62-year-old was behind the October 7 terrorist attack in which thousands of terrorists stormed into Israel early in the morning and killed more than 1,200 people.
U.S. officials hoped that the death of Hamas’s leader would help create an opportunity to create a ceasefire between the warring groups. However, both Israel and Hamas have indicated that the fighting will continue.
Shortly after this, one of Israel’s airstrikes killed a Hezbollah official who was expected to have replaced the terrorists group’s leader, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in September. The building he was in was leveled by the airstrike on Tuesday.
On Friday night, Israel began its expected military response to Iran’s missile barrage. Massive explosions were seen throughout Iran as Israel launched airstrikes that hit the eastern, western, and southern parts of Iran’s capital city of Tehran. According to an IDF report, there were military bases and secretive sites to the east of the city, as well as headquarters for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to the west. It has been confirmed through satellite imagery that buildings used to mix fuel for ballistic missiles were hit.
The Israeli military stated that three waves of jets struck missile factories in an effort to hamper Iran’s ability to produce missiles. There were also explosions reported near the Imam Khomeini International Airport, located in the southern part of Tehran.
The strikes come in response to the Islamic regime firing approximately 180 ballistic missiles into Israel at the start of the month. While Israel has been attacking Iran’s terrorist proxies Hezbollah and Hamas for some time, this is the first time Israel has openly attacked Iran. So what does this mean for the Middle East?
Freshman Noah Lopez believes that this could spark an all out war between Iran and Israel. “Iran has some allies that don’t like Israel, and Israel has allies that don’t like Iran. Whether they decide to join will be based on what response Iran has to this attack,” he explains.
While many world leaders are discouraging any further retaliations, the future of conflict in the Middle East rests on what Israel and Iran decide to do.
