War has returned to the Middle East. In Gaza, Yemen, and Syria, we are seeing conflicts simmer and boil over. Let’s get into it.

War in Gaza

Overnight, on Monday evening, Israeli planes struck a number of key Hamas targets in Gaza. In recent days and weeks, Hamas has been using the ceasefire as an opportunity to rearm in the hopes of resuming attacks against Israel and has violated its agreements with Jerusalem on a nearly daily basis since the ceasefire came into effect.

Ostensibly, Israel has been monitoring the movements and actions of various Hamas leaders during this time. As such, the Israeli military, likely using intelligence gleaned in recent weeks (hint: the massive and disgusting parades of hostages and bodies), was able to hit significant terrorist targets, including the spokesman for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and at least four Hamas leaders.

As the strikes continued into the morning on Tuesday, the Israeli Air Force struck terrorist hideouts, rocket positions and other elements of Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure. 

The Israeli government, with full backing and support from the Trump administration, has made very clear that either Hamas “genuinely” returns to the negotiating table or Jerusalem will resume its efforts to wipe the terrorist group from the face of the earth.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had this to say about the strikes: “This follows Hamas's repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from US Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators…. Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength.”

Yemen & Syria

Elsewhere in the region, the U.S. attacked Houthi targets in response to the latter resuming attacks against Red Sea shipping. The Houthi’s then threatened the U.S. should the Americans attack them again; Washington responded by doubling down with additional attacks on the Houthi’s.

While thus far their threats against the U.S. have not come to fruition, it is worth noting that one errant missile could spark a much larger conflagration.

The Houthi’s on Tuesday announced they had targeted an Israeli Air Force base with a ballistic missile. The Israelis shot the missile down well outside of Israel’s borders; however, should this missile have found its target, the world would’ve changed for the worse, but ultimately the Houthis would end up with the same fate as their murderous brothers in Hezbollah and Hamas.

In a nutshell, the Houthis should stop trying to kill innocent people and wage war against the West, but failing that, they should at a minimum continue to be very bad at it.

Speaking of Iran-backed thugs and terrorists, pro-Assad regime terrorists are attempting an insurgency in Syria. Thus far, the Sunni-Islamist government in Damascus has been addressing the situation, but the Israelis have not been sitting idly by.

For several weeks, and into the recent days, Israel has attacked Assad weapons depots to prevent them falling into the hands of terrorists (or the ISIS-esque regime in Damascus). Likewise, the IDF has stood firm in key areas inside Syria to deter attacks by radical Islamists on Syria’s minority Druze and Christian populations. In addition, Israel has attacked smugglers attempting to bring weapons from Iran to terrorists throughout the Levant.

All Roads Lead to Tehran

And that’s where every conversation, strategic discussion, and policy decision ends up focusing:  Tehran. Nothing described in today’s Action Update, or for that matter any Action Update of the past 500+ days, would’ve happened without the Mullahs in Tehran orchestrating, funding and effectively ordering their terrorist proxies to attack the Jewish state, Sunni Muslims, Christians, Druze, Americans, Brits, and international shipping, just to name a few.

Iran, with its allies Russia and China (who just this week condemned President Trump’s maximum pressure campaign), is at war with the free world. And the veneer associated with Iran’s proxy terrorist groups is finally gone.

As President Trump noted in recent days, “Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!”

From our perspective, that about sums it up, and not just for the Houthis but for Hamas and Hezbollah as well. Iran’s leaders are thugs who hire hitmen to do their dirty work, yet despite this indistinguishable distinction, some adages remain true, and Iran’s leaders have indeed lived by the sword. We’re pleased to see Washington beginning to understand with whom we are truly dealing: pure evil.

Sincerely,

The CUFI Action Fund