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WEST ASIA IN FLUX
Why are conflicts spreading in West Asia? | Explained
PREMIUM
How has a confrontation between Israel and Hamas snowballed into a regional
security crisis? Who are the key players in operation and why are they pulling in
different directions? What are the apprehensions of a prolonged war for the region
and the world?
January 21, 2024 03:15 am | Updated 11:00 am IST

Stanly JohnySTANLY JOHNY

COMMENTSSHAREREAD LATER
As Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 24,000 people in 100 days, is
continuing with no foreseeable end, the related security crisis in the region is
widening.
As Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 24,000 people in 100 days, is
continuing with no foreseeable end, the related security crisis in the region is
widening. | Photo Credit: AP

The story so far: West Asia is in flux. What started as a direct military
confrontation between Israel and Hamas has snowballed into a regional security
crisis. Hezbollah, Kataib Hezbollah, Hashad al-Shabi, Houthis, Iran, Pakistan and
the United States are all now part of an expanding conflict theatre. As Israel’s
war on Gaza, which has killed more than 24,000 people in 100 days, is continuing
with no foreseeable end, the related security crisis in the region is widening.

When Israel launched its war on Gaza, after Hamas’s October 7 cross-border attack
in which at least 1,200 Israelis were killed, there were fears that the conflict
could spill over beyond Palestine. Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia group that’s backed
by Iran, fired rockets at Israeli forces in the Shebaa Farms, an Israeli-controlled
territory which Lebanon claims as its own, in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Ever since, Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged fire many times, though both were
careful not to let tensions escalate into a full-blown war. While Arab countries,
upset with Israel’s indiscriminate bombing, stuck to the path of diplomacy to turn
up pressure on the Jewish state, Iran-backed militias elsewhere opened new fronts.
Houthis, the Shia militias of Yemen, started attacking commercial vessels in the
Red Sea from mid-November, again in “solidarity with the Palestinians”. Houthis,
who control much of Yemen, including its Red Sea coast, has used sea denial tactics
to target dozens of ships ever since, forcing several shipping giants to suspend
operations in the Red Sea, which connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Arabian
Sea (and the Indian Ocean) through the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

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