In recent times, Israel has been almost surrounded and attacked by terrorist armies. Israel is currently in a desperate battle with Hamas in Gaza and an increasing fight with Hezbollah in Lebanon. They have received spasmodic missile attacks from the Houthis in Yemen. So, we can see how Israel is hemmed in from all the directions of the compass. They are even getting occasional attacks from Hezbollah terrorists in Syria to the east. Let us look briefly at each of these major terrorist groups.
HAMAS
Hamas is an Islamic terrorist group, a spinoff from the Palestinian branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The group was founded by the Muslim cleric, Sheik Ahmed Yassin. The name Hamas is an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (“Islamic Resistance Movement”). Yassin founded the political arm of Hamas in 1987, shortly after the first Palestinian uprising (intifada) in Israel. Quickly, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades became the military wing of Hamas. Sheik Yassin was killed by the Israeli military in 2004. Yahya Sinwar is now the senior leader in Gaza, after other leaders, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif were taken out by Israeli operations.
In the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, Hamas secured a majority vote in Gaza. In the Battle of Gaza (2007), Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip and wrested it away from the rival Palestinian faction (Fatah). There soon followed skirmishes and outright wars with Israel in the years 2008–09, 2012, 2014, 2021 and the present war that began on October 7, 2023. Israel has lived under the daily threat of missile attacks from Gaza in recent years. This has been particularly true in the nation’s southern areas. How tragic that these attacks come from the very area that Israel gave to the Palestinians in the Oslo “Peace” accords. In Oslo I (1993), Israel pulled out of all its settlements in Gaza. The Palestinians soon began to turn Gaza into a terrorist base. This was finally completed with the takeover of Hamas.
While Hamas has received support from many sources, such as Qatar and Turkey, it is now largely supported with funds, weapons and training by Iran. Hamas has used the intervening years to cris-cross Gaza with a maze of defensive and offensive tunnels. Through tunnels along the Egyptian border, the organization has been able to be supplied with plenteous stores of weapons, food, money and other items from Iran.
Israel was greatly surprised by the Hamas invasion of her southern areas on October 7, 2023. That has now been called Israel’s greatest loss by terror since the Holocaust. Hundreds of terrorists broke through the Gaza protective fence and launched a massive attack on Israel.
Around 1200 Israelis, mostly civilians, were brutally murdered with over 200 taken as hostages back to Gaza. There was massive destruction in several Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip. There were many acts of cruelty and especially rape of the captive women. Col. Rabbi Haim Weisberg, head of the army’s rabbinic division, “described in graphic detail how one badly charred body turned out to be two victims – a mother and a baby bound together in a deep embrace. Another victim, he said, was a pregnant woman, her stomach cut open, her fetus pulled out and beheaded. The umbilical cord was still attached. It seemed that Israel’s great military forces were petrified and unable to immediately respond to this horrible attack.1
Today, the battle in Gaza drags on. More than 100 hostages have been released through negotiations and about that number is still in captivity. It seems that Hamas has murdered many of the Israeli hostages while they were being held. The fact that Israeli hostages are still in captivity after almost a year has brought great unrest and consternation to many in Israel.
It seems that the whole world has turned against Israel because of their attacks on Hamas. We need to understand that Hamas does not fight according to the accepted rules of war or even the rules of civilization in general. For instance, they established their headquarters underneath one of the major hospitals. They have also embedded themselves in schools and hid their weapons in private homes. They even made tunnel entrances from children’s bedrooms. Simply, Hamas has without apology used the civilians as human shields. They have raped and murdered their captives. Israel has no option except to attack Hamas in their places of refuge despite the resulting outcry and charges from the nations.
HOUTHIS
The Houthis, an Islamic revolutionary movement, sprang from the Houthi tribe of northern Yemen. The tribe was made up largely of the Ziadi Shia Muslim religion. The early leader of this movement was Hussein al-Houthi. Since it was a revolutionary movement against the Yemeni government, it resulted in Hussein being killed in 2004. It was then that his brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi became the organization’s leader.
The Houthi movement continued its struggle against the government and its President, Ali Abdullah Saleh. As it grew, the movement was influenced a great deal by the Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. By 2024, Hezbollah military leaders were even on the ground in Yemen. This slogan was adopted by the Houthis, “God is great. Death to America, death to Israel!” By 2015, the Houthis controlled the government of Yemen and by 2017 they had murdered Yemen’s president.
Houthis began to launch drone attacks against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In time they also began to launch drone and missile attacks against Red Sea shipping. With the outbreak of the 2013 Gaza War, they began to fire missiles directly toward Israel.
The Houthis have been heavily supported by Iran. New, modern and sophisticated weapons were supplied to the rebels. With Iran’s help they began to manufacture their own weapons. Now their threat to worldwide shipping has become much more serious. Vital east-west trade through the Suez Canal has been greatly disrupted with many vessels now choosing to travel around the southern tip of Africa to avoid possible conflict. Maersk shipping information shows that now traffic through the canal has fallen by some 66 percent.2
HEZBOLLAH
The Hezbollah (Party of God) is a Shiite Muslim political party and militant group based in Lebanon. It grew out of the chaos of the Lebanese Civil War which began in 1975, and it has come to be a sort of “state within a state.” It is an Iran-backed group that opposes both Israel and Western influence in the Middle East. In 1983, it conducted a suicide bombing of barracks housing US and French troops in Beirut. In that bombing, more than three hundred people died. It has now been designated as a terrorist organization by the US and other countries.
Today Hezbollah is led by Hassan Nasrallah. It is estimated by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, that Hezbollah has a militia of some twenty thousand active fighters with that many also in reserve. It has an arsenal of small arms, tanks, drones, and rockets. At this time, experts estimate that Hezbollah has 150,000–200,000 rockets and missiles of various ranges. All these are of course pointed at Israel.3
Since the Gaza War began on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah has conducted continuous rocket attacks on northern Israel. The rocket attacks appear to be increased from 855 in June of this year to 1,091 in July and then 1,307 in August. Since Hezbollah is closely related to Syria, many attacks on Israel also come from that direction. So far, these attacks have resulted in 26 civilian deaths and 20 IDF soldiers and reservists on the Israel side.4
Many of Israel’s northern towns have been evacuated and thousands of residents are now sheltered in hotels. Cities like Metula and Kiryat Shmona now look like ghost towns. These attacks plus the Gaza War have virtually shut down the usually large tourism industry in Israel. The attacks have greatly disrupted Israel’s economy with many farmers, factory workers and others now serving in the military.
DO WE SEE A PATTERN HERE?
Supporting all these proxy armies is the nation of Iran. This nation is literally the head of the snake. Her pious mullahs call America the big Satan and Israel the little Satan, when in fact they are the ones who are like Satan. Why is Iran fighting Israel when she has no common borders and is some 1000 miles away? Why is over half of her population living in poverty while her mullahs spend billions fighting Israel with three proxy armies?
This is a spiritual war. Probably the same spirit is ruling Iran just as in the days of the prophet Daniel. That spirit hates and despises Israel. Iran is very close to having an atomic bomb and she has vowed to use it on Israel as soon as it is developed. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and for all Israel. Pray for a spiritual awakening in Iran, and from what we can hear, one seems to be on the way.
-Jim Gerrish
Published 2024
1 Fox News, Ruth Marks Eglash, Published October 30, 2023.
2 Newsmax. https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/maersk-red-sea/2024/09/05/id/1179157/
3 Council of Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-hezbollah
4 Times of Israel. https://www.timesofisrael.com/1307-rockets-fired-from-lebanon-in-august-more-than-any-month-since-war-started/
Photo: Wikimedia, the Hamas 25th celebration in Gaza