Mirna Fahmy
A year passed on the October 7 attack that led to the losses of many sides instigating regional alterations for the future to wipe it out of more conflicts.
The October 7 attack that was carried out in 2023 when the Islamic Palestinian militant movement Hamas attacked the people who were preparing for a Nova music festival in Gaza periphery from different ages and nationalities—a sea-change not only to Palestinians in Palestine or Israel but to many populations in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA)—has waved in.
Many pro-Israelis and Jewish communities have labelled the October 7 attack as the worst since the Holocaust because the videos that were virally shared on social media via Hamas of the Israelis they killed were bloody, brutal, and horrific. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people, including children, women, elderlies, and military officers, and captured 254 hostages down in the tunnels of Gaza, which is known as “Gaza Metro.”.
Up till today, the bodies of 33 hostages are still in Gaza, according to the Israeli authorities, who allege that 70 captives have been slain in all. 37 hostages’ remains that either died in captivity under mysterious circumstances or were transferred to Gaza after they passed away have been found by the army.
Endlessly repeating that Israel will never stand still on the assault of its citizens and territories, it has carried out a strong military operation on Gaza, shaping the fate of not only the 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip but also the Palestinians in the West Bank. Around 42 thousand Palestinians were believed to be killed in Gaza by the Israeli strikes that target the underground bases of many Hamas leaders and bases, as it is recorded and stated by the Minister of Health of Palestinians. This didn’t come to the agreement of many Israelis and their supporters because they believe that the entire Palestinian authority is led by Hamas and nothing should be taken as facts from what they release.
The combat wasn’t only one-sided but from six sides, whereas Hamas in Gaza, Houthis in Yemen, Iran, Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria and Iraq. All of them are Iran’s proxies in the region.
When the attack occurred on Saturday, October 7 in 2023, there were many people either from the Gulf or the Arabic-speaking countries in the MENA who condemned the attack, saying this would lead to many consequences and alterations in the region. On the other side, there were those who were applauding for it, especially when it was carried out after October 6, the day when the Egyptian army broke down Bar Lev Line in 1973, a chain of fortifications built by Israel along the eastern bank of the Suez Canal shortly after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, and they were able to proceed to the Sinai Peninsula, which was under Israeli territory from 1967 after the defeat of the Egyptian and Arab armies. The October 7 attack was labelled “Toofan al Aqsa” (Aqsa’s Flood), where they shall liberate Palestine.
A year has passed, and there are many changes that can be spotted in this conflicted region especially in the countries that shelter Iran’s proxies and always attack Israel regularly when the Israel-Hamas war commenced after the October 7 attack. In return Israel vows publicly to eliminate all of Iran’s back-ups where it can live peacefully out of regional conflicts.
“This war that is taking place now is completely unlike its predecessors. It is a war of existence for all parties,” Mohamad Ali El Husseini, a Saudi-Lebanese imam researcher and the current Secretary-General of the Arab Islamic Council, said in one of his series of interviews on the Al Arabiya channel.
“Therefore, it will be the fiercest, most difficult, most violent, most destructive, and most bloody, and the price will be greater, and the victor will have an impact on the region.”
In Lebanon:
Now the killing and the bombing of any Iranian-related proxy have become no more important breaking news. Just to tip down another piece of news, the Israel Defence Force (IDF) online sources quickly announce the killing of other Hezbollah leaders, including the latest, which was Hassan Nasrallah’s successor, Hesham Safieddine. Hours later, the third new Hezbollah leader, Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed, was reported to be killed. Along with him, Muhammad Youssef Anisi, head of Hezbollah’s precision missile project, was eliminated.
Fear has been spread across Hezbollah that many have publicly announced their resignation while shaving their beards and taking off the Iranian traditional religious clothes to evade Israel’s strike on them. Hezbollah Deputy Leader Naim Qassem refused to become the new leader of the movement, saying in a video that he announced his resignation from the group.
Israel has launched a ground military campaign on Southern Lebanon in early October 2024 to eliminate all of Hezbollah and their military bases that include rockets inside homes and mosques. The IDF stated that their forces penetrated Hezbollah’s tunnels and found weapons stores and command rooms. They have so far destroyed 2,000 Hezbollah targets.
“All attempts to cease fire or achieve a truce in Lebanon will not be achieved because the matter has been decided,” El Husseini noted regarding Lebanon. He explained that the Israeli army advances with the robot on the basis that these are soldiers and they are targeted, thus determining the locations of Hezbollah and striking it, after which the ground forces of the Israeli army enter.
“Now it is the decision of the Lebanese people: You can restore your state and move towards peace and prosperity,” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said these words to the Lebanese people in a video posted on his social media account. Netanyahu warned the Lebanese that Hezbollah will continue to try to drag them into war, and it is the cause of the suffering of all of them, including Christians, Druze, Muslims, Sunnis, and Shiites.
In Iran:
After the death of Hassan Nasrallah, Israeli sources on social media have confirmed that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has sought refuge in an underground security place in fear of an Israeli strike targeting him. He appeared for the first time in five years leading a prayer sermon on Friday, October 7, 2024. He posted on his X account that “they have made Israel go back in time 70 years.” His post was seen as provoking and not convincing because Israel hasn’t been scratched by an inch amid its six-sided attacks, even the 400 ballistic missiles that Iran showered on Israel on October 1, 2024. While Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen are in severe destruction.
El Husseini emphasised that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is hijacked, and there are many spies that have leaked information to the Israeli side on Iran and its proxies, especially dangerous information that threatens Hezbollah. The security breach reached the party’s tunnel digging and engineering employees. That includes also the Pagers explosion that happened to Hezbollah members and the former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter explosion in May 2024. It has been believed that it is because of a pager’s explosion, as he was once spotted with one in previous photos.
According to the Washington Post, Mossad supervised the manufacturing of explosive-laden pages given to Hezbollah in 2023.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, September 27, 2024, Netanyahu said that Israel will win the battle that it is fighting and Iran should not take the country lightly. He added that “There’s No Place in Iran That Israel Cannot Reach.”
Former Iranian President Ahmadinejad once said in a TV interview that “We established a special unit to combat Mossad activities inside Iran, and it turned out that the leader of this unit was a Mossad agent.” “Iran is completely infiltrated.”
With Israeli and Arab support, all eyes are on the future leader of Iran, who is the Exiled Crown Prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi. In a video on his X account, he said that “The regime in Tehran is responsible for the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent people: Iranians, Arabs, and Israelis, Christians, Muslims, and Jews.” Pahlavi added that this is not the war of the Iranian people. It is a war against Khamenei and his regime. He announced that he’s ready to lead a transitional government toward democracy in Iran.
In Palestine:
In the memory of October 7, Khaled Mashal, one of the five Hamas leaders who is on the assassination list of Israel’s targets like his other fellows, appeared in a TV video and said that “our losses, the death of our people, are tactical while our enemy’s losses are strategic.” He assured “to continue Jihad on all fronts and the sacrifice of lives, as pain and death are symbols of martyrdom.
When the attack occurred, there were many revolving opinions about the change that the MENA region will experience in the near future, whereas the Palestinian cause might be terminated. Netanyahu has said that he will no longer leave Gaza to the Palestinians, and he would establish cooperation with the US Embassy to monitor this while it is unknown about the fate of the 2 million displaced Palestinians.
In many recent reports that were released in September 2024, it has been reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman stressed that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. On September 14, 2024, the Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, stated on his X account: “The UAE is not prepared to support the next day of the war in Gaza without the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
In Syria:
Following the assassination of Nasrallah, many Israeli sources confirmed the death of Maher Al-Assad, the brother of Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad, in an air strike while holding a meeting in his private residence with a number of commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Continuing to unveil what is happening in the region, El Husseini endorsed that the next stage after Lebanon is heading to the Levant, to Damascus, with a military operation aimed at removing Iran and all its militias from inside Syria once and for all and giving power to the new president of Syria in the event that Bashar al-Assad does not agree to end the Iranian militias in Syria.
For Iraq, El Husseini has stated that “according to a decision taken, two of the Iraqi Shia militant groups, Al-Hamidawi and Akram Al-Kaabi, will be targeted. The region is on the verge of major changes with international support. The coming days will be decisive.”
Now, Israel is pursuing similar tactics in Lebanon following the devastation in Gaza, continuing to target anything that it detects might have any connection to their targets. Meanwhile, Iran is supporting its proxies in Yemen, Lebanon, and Palestine in their efforts against Israel, while major European powers and the United States continue to arm Israel. In the months ahead, the geopolitical landscape of the region may shift dramatically, suggesting what sort of peace may come to free the region of similar wars.