When Israel expands enemy territory

As the US-led effort to end Israel's aggression in Gaza and restore peace continues, Saturday's rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights has raised concerns that the crisis in the Middle East could be further complicated. Twelve children were killed in an attack on a football field in the town of Majdushams, a town of Druze Muslims in the Golan. Israel, which blamed Lebanon's Hezbollah for the attack, announced a strong response and began retaliating. However, Hezbollah denied responsibility for the incident. The accident was blamed on a missile attack by Israel's defense system, Iron Dome. Al Arabi channel has confirmed this by quoting eyewitnesses. Syria also blamed Saturday's rocket attack as a premeditated attack by Israel to escalate tensions in the region. As residents of Israel, the country's finance minister accompanied Likud party officials to Majdushams to express their condolences, but local residents did not allow them to enter. The Druze section has demanded that the incident should not be turned into a political issue. However, the Zionist regime, which came out with the threat of retaliation, has not accepted it. It is also preparing to cancel the Gaza ceasefire over it.

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The Golan Heights is an area captured by Israel from Syria during the 1967 Six-day War. Israel officially annexed this 500-square-mile strip of land, which shares borders with Jordan and Lebanon, in 1981. However, this unilateral decision by Israel has not been accepted by the international community. The UN Security Council considers the Golan Heights to be an occupied territory. Tel Aviv sees the Golan Heights as a critical area in countering threats from Syria and Iran. After capturing the hills in 1967, Israel established 30 settlements in various stages and settled around a quarter of a million Jews there. About 20,000 of them were offered Israeli citizenship after 1967 but they did not accept. They were issued Israeli residency cards to continue their stay. Later, the colony was built and Jews were settled in the area and the population level was distorted. Israel plans to double the number of settlements by the end of 2027. The UN Human Rights Committee has issued a strong warning against this. The majority of people in the Golan belonged to the Druze, a particular Arab group living in Syria and Lebanon. These Arabs, who became a minority, were subjected to constant discrimination in later history.

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Since the beginning of the Gaza War following the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, Lebanon and Israel have repeatedly engaged in various attacks and counter-attacks. Hezbollah-led Lebanon's position is that the fight against Israel will continue until it stops its attack on Gaza. International agencies estimate that 100,000 people have been displaced from the Lebanese-Israeli border areas due to the ongoing war situation. Israel has threatened to take military action if diplomatic talks fail in view of security in the region. Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced on Sunday that the country is headed for an all-out war with Lebanon and Hezbollah. They also carried out airstrikes in South Lebanon on Sunday. This move also creates trouble for the US, which supports Israel. The US has warned that a retaliatory attack on Hezbollah bases in Beirut could lead to the matter getting out of hand. As the presidential election heats up, peace in the Middle East is very important to the United States. The United States and Europe understand that Israel is playing with fire when it is expanding war zones without ending the Gaza war first. Besides Lebanon, Hezbollah has Iran on its side with all the support. Recently, with Turkey also entering the scene, the tension has reached an unpredictable level. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that if atrocities against Palestinians continue, they will attack Israel. Erdogan has also said that he intervened in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh during the Armenian crisis. In both places, mercenaries were deployed and Turkey was ready for the operation. The extent to which Israel will continue to attack and organize further provocations directly and indirectly depends on what actions the international community will take.

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