How Iran-Backed Militant Groups Are Widening the Israel-Hamas War

As the war between Israel and the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas has continued, it’s stoked violence in other parts of the Middle East. Militant groups backed by Iran, which supports Hamas and for years has engaged in a shadow war with Israel, have joined in. They’ve attacked Israeli targets, ships in the Red Sea, and US forces, provoking retaliation. The clashes raise concerns that a wider conflagration will engulf the region.

Iranian officials celebrated the Oct. 7 attack that set off the war, in which Hamas fighters from the Gaza Strip overran Israeli military bases and villages, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said, “We kiss the hands of those who planned the attack” by Hamas, which the US and European Union consider a terrorist organization. Iran has denied involvement in the assault, and US and Israeli officials have said they have no direct evidence that it played an active role. Early on, Iran said that Israel’s military response to the Hamas attack would be answered by the anti-Israeli and anti-Western groups it supports. That so-called axis of resistance includes militants in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.