With Hamas, Hezbollah battered, Israel pivots to Iran, Syria, Yemen in 2025
As 2024 comes to an end, Israel is now less worried about threats from Hamas and Hezbollah and instead very much concerned over Iran and Syria.
By December 2024, Israel has grown considerably more confident compared to its position a year ago. However, Syria, Iran and also Yemen to some extent continue to pose strategic challenges that the Israeli military establishment must address in 2025.
Having killed most of the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah in 2024, including Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Hassan Nasrallah, the Israeli military now estimates that the two groups pose significantly less of a threat to the Jewish state compared to a year ago." In the Gaza Strip, the majority of the fighting is now concentrated in the north.
Conversely, the two missile and drone attacks by Iran, first in April and then in October, have forced the Israeli military to confront an unprecedented situation in which the taboo of a direct assault by Tehran has been broken. The toppling of Bashar al-Assad also forced Israel into a a new reality. Over the years, Israel and the Assad regime were careful not to confront each other directly, though the Israeli military often struck Iranian and Hezbollah infrastructure in the country. Israel is now concerned about the new regime in Syria, which is why the Israeli military is now positioned in the 1974 buffer zone and on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.
Hamas no longer a strategic challenge
