Explained: Axis of Resistance in Gaza War
BEIRUT -- A joint operation room for the recent Gaza war was established in Beirut, where officers from Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) oversaw the conflict, a prominent Lebanese journalist says.
The operation room was not only a place to exchange experience and tactics, but also somewhere intelligence apparatuses operated, Al-Akhbar editor-in-chief Ibrahim al-Amin said.
General Ismail Qa’ani, the head of the IRGC’s Quds Force, visited Beirut twice during the war, Amin said, noting that the Lebanese resistance also managed to transfer high-ranking Hamas officers to Beirut through “special routes”.
“Israel knows that the first outcome of Gaza’s victory is not Gaza linking with Al-Quds, the West Bank and the 1948 Arabs - namely the resistance’s connection with other parts of Palestine - but the rest of Palestine joining the resistance axis,” he said.
According Al-Akhbar, the recent blow dealt to the occupying regime of Israel during the 11-day Gaza war was part of a liberation plan devised by the Axis of Resistance.
Leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah resistance movements, Ismail Haniyeh and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, met in Lebanon last year to draw up the plan for the liberation of the occupied territories, the paper said.
The Palestinian resistance adopted tactics used by Hezbollah during the 2006 war by setting up mock rocket launch sites to deceive the Israeli air force.
Yemen’s Ansarullah also communicated with Hamas and requested coordinates for the sites it wanted to target with missiles and drones, but Hamas told the popular movement not to intervene as long as the Israeli army had not crossed the “red lines”.
Tel Aviv began bombing Gaza on May 10, after Palestinian retaliation against violent raids on worshipers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Zionist regime’s plans to force a number of Palestinian families out of their homes at the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem Al-Quds.
Apparently caught off guard by unprecedented rocket barrages from Gaza, Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire on May 21, which Palestinian resistance groups accepted with Egyptian mediation.
In a televised speech last week, Nasrallah warned that any aggression against Jerusalem Al-Quds or the city’s holy sites would mean a regional war.
“When holy sites face serious threats, there are no red lines,” he said. “All the resistance
movements can’t sit back and watch if holy sites are in danger.”
Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, warned of a regional war in case holy sites were attacked and that all resistance groups would coalesce in any future battle.
“Nasrallah should be taken seriously; he is Israel’s most credible enemy, he usually doesn’t make empty threats,” a senior Zionist security source told Al-Monitor news website on the condition of anonymity. “The fact that he joined Sinwar at this timing and announced that any unilateral Israel move in Jerusalem would lead to war should be treated … as a very serious warning.”
Former Israeli lawmaker Zvi Hauser said, “This is probably the last time that Israel will confront Hamas alone. In the future, Israel will be challenged at the same time on additional fronts, such as the northern front, making the challenge much tougher.”
‘Fatally Weak Against Axis of Resistance’
An article in Haaretz said Monday the occupying regime of Israel is fatally weak against the Axis of Resistance which includes the Palestinian and Lebanese movements.
Writing in the leading Zionist daily, Dr. Gil Murciano also said the “War between the Wars” doctrine followed by Israel is greatly limited in shaping an endurable reality for the regime.
According to Murciano, Israel’s position has eroded further with each new round of fighting with resistance groups as Gaza-based Hamas movement grows stronger in the domestic Palestinian arena, while Israel grows weaker on the international stage.
Murciano noted that the Zionist regime’s recent acts of aggression against Palestinians in East Jerusalem Al-Quds coupled with a bloody military onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip have caused a deep tear in the fabric of Jewish-Arab relations within the occupied territories.
Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance movement, he said, have upgraded their capacity to inflict damage on Israeli military forces, both in terms of quantity and quality.
Murciano said the “War between the Wars” policy creates a false sense of proactivity, and sanctifies military creativity and initiative in eliminating operational risks. It, however, enables the political echelon to avoid diplomatic measures.
“This illusion of proactivity collapses with every escalation. While we are busy trying to preserve the status quo, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah are learning, adapting and improving conditions for the next round,” he said.
According to Murciano, the next round of fighting could present the Zionist regime with an active new front on the West Bank as Hamas is growing in power in the territory.