Israel warns of regional conflict risk as Iran tensions increase

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Israel’s defence minister has warned of a growing risk of a regional conflict in the Middle East as tensions with Iran increased.

Yoav Gallant on Tuesday told a parliamentary committee that Israel was being attacked in a “multi-arena war” from seven areas, which he identified as Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran.

“We have already responded and acted in six of these arenas and I say here in the most explicit way — anyone who acts against us is a potential target, there is no immunity for anyone,” he said.

Israel declared war against Hamas in Gaza following the Palestinian militant group’s surprise cross-border attack on October 7, and quickly launched a wide-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank against Hamas and other militant operatives.

Israel has also exchanged daily fire with the Iran-backed Hizbollah militia in Lebanon across their shared frontier, with the episodes intensifying in recent weeks.

A senior Iranian general based in Syria, Reza Mousavi, was killed in an airstrike on Monday that Iranian officials attributed to Israel. Tehran vowed that Israel would “pay” for his death.

Yet it remained unclear whether Israel had actually targeted Iran, Yemen or Iraq directly.

Gallant’s comments come after the US announced late on Christmas Day that it had struck three facilities used by the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia and others affiliated to the so-called axis of resistance in Iraq.

That strike was ordered as retaliation for a drone attack earlier in the day on a military base hosting US troops in Erbil, northern Iraq, that critically injured one US service member. Iraqi officials said that the US strikes had killed one militant and injured 18 others.

The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, said in a statement that he and President Joe Biden would “not hesitate to take…