For Iran and the Assad regime, intermission is over. The swift ending of the Gaza conflict is likely to thrust the bloodshed in Syria and the Iranian nuclear crisis back onto center stage, with an invigorated Western-Arab alliance raising the curtain and directing the spotlight. Yet, in their overly romantic portrayal of successful US shuttle diplomacy and Egypt’s emergence as a responsible mediator, global punditry has underestimated the ayatollahs' continued ability to plunge the Gaza Strip back into chaos at their leisure.

Iran purposefully and undoubtedly fired the first shots of this latest escalation, which began four days prior to Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Ahmed Jabari on Nov. 14. On Nov. 10, militants from the Iranian-backed Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) fired an advanced Kornet missile at an IDF border patrol, igniting four days of hostilities between Israel and other Gaza-based militant groups, primarily Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The use of such a highly accurate weapon was a game changer, prompting the IDF to plan Jabari’s killing soon after as a response.

While alliances between militant groups in the Gaza Strip are about as stable as quicksand, Israel has long maintained that it holds Hamas responsible for any violence emanating from the coastal enclave. This includes attacks from the PRC, whose successful use of a highly-sophisticated Kornet missile underscores just how advanced even fringe militant groups in the Gaza Strip have become under Iranian direction.

Under its cease-fire obligations, Hamas’ security forces are now tasked with preventing up to a dozen heavily armed militant groups, all more extremist than Hamas itself, from provoking another destructive Israeli operation. After the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead in January 2009, Hamas established a counter-guerrilla force specifically designed to thwart rocket attacks from the PRC, the Islamic Jihad, and al-Qaeda-inspired groups, many of which had become the focus of Iranian smuggling efforts.