The risks of wider war over Gaza, as Iran’s ‘axis’ activates
Near Lebanon’s border with Israel, a Hezbollah missile specialist now braces for war like never before.
Wearing black tactical trousers, green camouflage, and a pistol – capped by a fatigued look that is by turns elated and anxious – the officer in the Iran-backed Shiite militia says his morale and expectations of imminent battle could not be higher.
That is because he believes Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 raid, which left 1,400 Israelis dead and triggered an Israeli ground assault into Gaza, is heralding a broader, long-awaited fight against Israel and its staunch American ally by every regional armed wing of Iran’s self-declared “Axis of Resistance.”
“Oct. 7: We can call it the day of the beginning of the fall of Israel; that makes our morale shoot sky high,” says the Hezbollah veteran of 22
