GUWAHATI: Israeli military on Thursday, August 1 announced that it had killed Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif in an air strike it carried out last month in southern Gaza. The military’s confirmation came a day after the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, in an explosion in the guest house where he was staying; Israel has not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh’s death, but the finger of suspicion points at it given its vow to eliminate the Hamas leadership.
Apparently, the explosive device had earlier been smuggled inside the guest house where the Hamas leader was staying and the blast was triggered through remote control. As for Deif, the military claimed that he had initiated, planned, and executed the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel that resulted in the death of over a thousand people and set off the bloody Palestine-Israel conflict that shows no sign of abating soon. Haniyeh’s assassination happened just hours after Israel targeted a top Hezbollah military leader in Beirut. In the meantime, according to some reports, over 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict until mid-July.
The killing of the Hamas leaders comes amidst efforts at finding a resolution to the conflict, and the development is now being perceived as a stumbling block that could derail the move, and at a heavy cost at that. Incidentally, Haniyeh, the political chief of Hamas, was leading cease-fire negotiations on the part of the militant group when he was killed. It is being said that the killings are unlikely to deter the Hamas and the group could instead be spurred into attempting more severe retaliatory action.
Iran has also vowed a “harsh and painful response” in retaliation, raising the spectre of a broader regional war and one that could even harm the United States and other Western powers beyond. What the incidents might have done is to add to the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, and Israel and Iran, and it would indeed appear that Israel is deliberately looking for a broader conflict.
Yet, going by utterances, nobody appears to be keen on war. Iran has made that clear in the past few months, and Hezbollah and Lebanon cannot really afford to given Israel’s tendency to unhesitatingly target civilian infrastructure. However, continued Israeli provocations – to fulfill its vow of wiping out the Hamas leadership or its allies - could eventually change the dynamics and push the region into an all-out war.
It is here that the United States could play a significant role in reining in Israel and give peace a chance in the region; it has been clear all along that the only country that could potentially exert some influence on Israel, it is the United States. On a different but related plane, sight must not be lost of the fact that the new Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian, has expressed himself in favour of engaging with the United States to relieve his country from the economic sanctions and the latter must take every step to exploit this in the interest of peace in the region.
But for all that to happen, it has to be seen the U.S. is not condoning Israeli actions and is supportive of the country. If the United States is unable to influence Israeli decision-making, then the onus will be left only on Iran and Hezbollah not to retaliate and escalate the war, which may be a costly gamble. All must agree that solutions are not going to come through war.
