Missile strike at Ben Gurion Airport intensifies tensions; US and Israel retaliate
The Middle East madness may never end. As if the destruction of the Gaza Strip and the starving of its people to whom aid of food and medicines is beyond reach are not enough, the Houthi rebels got into the act launching what they claimed was a hypersonic ballistic missile that gouged out a part of a parking lot in Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv injuring six people.
The regional conflict is certain to expand with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising a series of “bangs” in the territories that the Houthi rebels are in control of around Saana.
With the US also striking at the rebels’ area with missiles to retaliate for their obstinate firing at international shipping passing through waters close to Yemen, the situation is bound to explode into further loss of limb and life and what passes for civil infrastructure in the region.
It is as well that Iran has washed its hands of the latest act of the Houthi rebels that it had nurtured, funded and armed to aim at Israel and international shipping in a region which has not been free of conflict for well over 50 years now. It is unlikely that Israel would drag Iran into this by striking Iranian targets, but the sheer uncertainty surrounding what may happen in a region with such religious and ethnic animus has induced fear and anxiety, including in airlines like Air India that has suspended its operations to Tel Aviv.
Israel is also preparing for a fuller conquest of Gaza, towards which it has called up reservists and has determined that all Hamas infrastructure will be destroyed. Elaborate talks and a ceasefire agreed upon in 2024 appear like a joke now with full-scale war operations in the offing for Israel to take total control of the strip. With Hamas unwilling or unable to return what Israeli and international hostages are still alive, only a doomsday scenario is envisaged for the innocent people of the region who may have little to do with Hamas and its militant terror objectives.
The bigger the conflagration now the lesser the chances of ever arriving at the much touted two- state solution that alone may bring sanity to the region with Palestinians getting land to call their home in return for peace to the Israelis. It appears peace is farthest from the minds of all parties in an endless conflict now.
