And Iran’s government says almost 2,000 people have been killed by US-Israeli attacks there since the war in Iran began.
Israel’s military strategy in the region changed after the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, from a policy of ‘containing’ its enemies with occasional operations, to one of pre-empting attacks.
That shift has pulled Israel into direct confrontation with Iran, but also led to a policy of creating so-called ‘buffer zones’ in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon – wide areas of territory that Israel has seized from its neighbours for what it terms security reasons; the result of a repeated failure to turn military might into sustainable peace.
On Tuesday, just before the Jewish holiday of Passover, Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israel had inflicted 10 “plagues” on the regime in Tehran, including the establishment of “deep security belts beyond our borders – in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon”.
“The buffer zone approach is seen as an insurance policy that gives Israel flexibility and buys it time, linked to the wider change in Israel’s security doctrine since the 7 Oct attacks,” said Burcu Ozcelik, a specialist in Middle East strategy at UK’s Royal United Services Institute (Rusi).
But, she says, there are political fractures within Israel over the purpose of this approach.
“Some think the buffer zones will eventually lead to permanent occupation or the expansion of Israel’s borders – an ideological point of view, long championed by the far-right,” she said.
“More pragmatic voices argue that what’s happening now in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria is a security-driven approach that may be removed once Israel feels safer.”
For the past two and a half years, Benjamin Netanyahu has led his country in a continuous rolling conflict with Iran and its allies around the region, each time promising that the next war would restore Israel’s security and vanquish its enemies.
Just nine months ago, after Israel’s last war on Iran, Netanyahu told his nation they had achieved “a historic victory that will stand for generations”, removing the “existential threats” from Iran’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Despite the rhetoric of imminent victory accompanying every fresh conflict, the reality for many Israelis is a new state of ‘perma-war’.
“The grandiose promises of destroying Hezbollah and Hamas and Iran are not coming true,” said Dahlia Scheindlin, a Policy Fellow at the Mitvim Institute, a think tank focused on Israeli foreign policy.
And Netanyahu’s promise that the war on Iran will lead to new regional alliances for Israel hasn’t materialised either, she says, leaving Arab States – including current or potential Israeli allies – worried.
“It never happens because Israel is behaving like an unpredictable warmongering actor that might snatch territory,” Scheindlin said. “Israel’s attack on Iran and Lebanon, and its encroachment into Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, is creating incredible anxiety that Israel is not a good ally in their shared concern about Iran, but that it is a dangerous ally.”
