Middle East tensions are heating up

Tel Aviv [Israel], January 18: As the Hamas-Israel conflict began to heat up again, other parties in the region also took advantage of military action, causing the situation to escalate dangerously.
Fighting in Gaza flared up again
Over the past few days, Israeli tanks have returned to areas in the northern Gaza Strip where they left last week. According to a Reuters report, many large explosions occurred again in the northern Gaza Strip, two weeks after Israel announced the withdrawal of troops from the area to switch to a more targeted phase of hostilities. On January 16, Hamas carried out one of the largest attacks on Israeli territory in weeks when it launched dozens of rockets across the border.
The cause of this re-escalation of fighting is unknown, but it occurred while the two sides reached an agreement to deliver medicine to hostages in the Gaza Strip and humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians with the mediation of negotiations by the Palestinian Authority. Qatar. Yesterday, the Israeli army announced that it had killed a counterintelligence officer and a military leader of Hamas behind many attacks on Israelis following air strikes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Meanwhile, Hamas said that 81 people were killed after Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip overnight, including in the city of Khan Younis in the south of the enclave, according to The Times of Israel newspaper .
Houthi and Iran acted simultaneously
Meanwhile, the Red Sea situation has seen many new developments that threaten ships passing through the area. On January 16, the US military announced that it had carried out another airstrike in Yemen, destroying four anti-ship ballistic missiles of the Houthi forces that were preparing to be launched. A few hours later, the Houthis announced an attack on a commercial ship in the Red Sea en route to Israel. According to Reuters, the ship named Zografia flew the Maltese flag and was owned by Greece, and was not carrying goods at that time. The ship was hit by a missile while moving in the Red Sea, about 140 km from Yemen's Saleef port, but no one was injured.
In a move to cut off funding and weapons supplies to the Houthis, the force that has attacked many ships allegedly linked to Israel to support the Palestinians because of the conflict in Gaza, the US government is considering sending the group This is back on the list of terrorist organizations, Reuters quoted US officials as revealing. "We are not seeking to expand this conflict. The Houthis still have time to make the right choice to stop these attacks," said White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. declare.
Another crisis is also emerging in the region after Iran repeatedly carried out missile attacks on "spy headquarters" and "terrorist" targets in Syria, Iraq and most recently Pakistan. The reaction of the Syrian government, Iran's ally, is unknown, but Iraq has condemned the act of violating its sovereignty and complained to Iran to the United Nations Security Council about the attack that left four people dead and six injured. love. Pakistan summoned Iranian diplomatic representatives to protest the "unwarranted violation of airspace", after an airstrike that killed two children and injured three people. "Infringement on Pakistan's sovereignty is completely unacceptable and can have serious consequences," Pakistan's Foreign Ministry warned. While Iran said that the attack in Iraq targeted Israeli intelligence forces, the airstrike in Pakistan was said to be aimed at destroying the base of the Jaish al-Adl armed group, which claimed responsibility for the attack on the station. Police in Iran in December 2023 killed 11 police officers.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper