Middle Orient

What happened? In the early hours of 7 October, Hamas launched what it called Operation al-Aqsa Deluge, a multi-pronged attack on Israel, including Israeli border towns ringing the Gaza Strip. Thousands of rockets rained down on areas in Israel in the first few hours. These gave cover to Hamas militants, …

Netanyahu Has Nothing but Bad Options As thousands of rockets rain down on Israel, lighting up the skyline of Tel Aviv and other cities, the country’s current priority is to defend its towns and military bases against Hamas’s sudden and devastating attacks from the Gaza Strip. Israel will try to …

On the morning of Saturday, October 7, the Palestinian group Hamas carried out a surprise attack on Israel on an unprecedented scale: firing thousands of rockets, infiltrating militants into Israeli territory, and taking an unknown number of hostages. At least 100 Israelis have died, and at least 1,400 have been …

With contacts aimed at promoting possible normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia inthe background, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisiattacked Israel and warned against the normalization process. The Supreme Leader of Iranonce again referred to Israel as a “cancer” and declared that normalizing relations with it …

Hamas’ operation against Israel on October 7 was a major step in the Iranian effort to take control of the Palestinian cause. The surprise offensive by Hamas on October 7 has launched a thousand morsels of speculation. There is indeed much that can be concluded from the organization’s attacks against …

The following is the full text of the speech by Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas Political Bureau, on the first day of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, 7 October, 2023, as reported by Al-Jazeera: In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. O children of our Palestinian …

In hindsight, the drivers of Hamas’s startlingly well-planned, land-sea-air attack on Israel on Saturday were in plain sight. The operation reflects a pattern of four wars and regular outbreaks of violence between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza since 2005, when Israel withdrew its military posts and forcibly removed 9,000 …

There will be only one winner in the war that has broken out between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. And it is neither Israel nor Hamas. In an operation coined “the Al-Aqsa Storm,” Hamas, whose formal name is the Islamic Resistance Movement, fired thousands of rockets into Israel …

Last Friday, Israeli newspapers were filled with stories about the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, also called the October War. In 1973, the country had nearly been defeated by co-ordinated surprise attacks from its Arab neighbors. Never again, people thought. So, Israelis were especially shocked to be awakened …

Almost 50 years ago to the day, Israel had failed to anticipate the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur war – a shock attack on its borders by a coalition of Arab states. Now, it appears the country’s intelligence apparatuses have fallen victim to a false sense of security once …