As the war rages on for its sixth month, it appears that both sides are losing, along with growing worries about an Iranian response to the killing of two of its commanders in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus, Syria in early April.
The war in Gaza has seen the death toll rise to an estimated 33,000 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Despite the almost complete destruction of Gaza, many are saying that Israel’s two main goals in the war, that being the freeing of the 130 remaining hostages and the destruction of Hamas, are looking more and impossible. This is also amid the growing international isolation of Israel, with even the United States demanding that Israel should do more to protect the Palestinian civilians trapped in Gaza, with one million at risk of starvation. The international condemnation increased majorly after Israel’s killing of six aid workers for the World Central Kitchen.
Things aren’t looking much better at home in Israel for the Benjamin Netanyahu administration, which is facing mass protests, according to Al Jazeera, a media outlet out of Qatar. The protests are reportedly against the regime’s handling of the war, with some of the hostages’ families even joining in, as many claim that Netanyahu is prioritizing his own regime staying in power over actually getting hostages freed.
Al Jazeera
Another major source of protests against Netanyahu’s government are growing fears of Iran joining the conflict, after seven members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, including the two commanders, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus. One of the commanders killed was Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the Quds Force, the IRGC’s elite foreign espionage group. Zahedi was a key figure in Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” the anti-Israel, anti-West network of Iran-backed groups that operate with militants from across the Arab world. Many are fearing that Iran may join in on the War in Gaza, with Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi stating that “This cowardly crime will not go unanswered,”.
