By Athena Papakosta

The British newspaper “The Guardian” reports that the risk of the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip spilling over into a wider conflict remains low. However, it still exists – which means no one can rule out the scenario in question.

This is because the players in the Middle East are many, diverse, and hostile to each other. One wrong move and the region turns from a seething cauldron into a living nightmare as the all-out war scenario will see the United States and Iran dragged directly into war.

According to Gzero the path that could lead directly to further escalation of the ongoing conflict is for either Israel or the Iranian-backed Hezbollah of Lebanon to choose to attack each other.

As the website in question notes (also) top Israeli officials have already pledged to remove the threat of Hezbollah. And if the Israeli armed forces launch a warning strike, the United States will offer support, while Iran will help the Shiite organization, which is also its most important representative in the region.

At Middle East remains the Secretary of State of the United States, Anthony Blinken which has now landed in Israel to continue fire prevention efforts having repeatedly warned of the danger.

However, despite Blinken’s warnings and even despite the warning from the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallahto Israel not to launch a full-scale war in Lebanon, the Israeli prime minister addressed soldiers on Israel’s northern border and stressed that he is determined to “do whatever is necessary to restore security in the North.”

Yesterday, Monday, an alarm was raised when Israel killed the top Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon, Wissam Tawil. “We sent a message to Hezbollah,” said the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and added that “Hezbollah made a big mistake with us in 2006 and they are making a big mistake now” and then warned that “we gave them an example of what the their friends in the South” making it clear that this will also happen in the North.

At the same time, Israel is escalating its strikes in Syria. According to military sources, “Israeli bombings against Iranian arms shipments and air defense systems in Syria have become more frequent and more deadly,” while the Israeli armed forces announced yesterday that they had killed the Hamas official in Syria, Hassan Khakassa, who – as they pointed out – was responsible for the rockets launched in recent weeks by the Islamist Palestinian organization from Syrian territory.

At the same time, the Houthi rebels of Yemen are also causing concern, who have been on a trajectory of escalation for weeks, launching attacks against commercial ships in the Red Sea, while, at the same time – as Gzero underlines – other Shiite organizations in Iraq and Syria are increasing their attacks against American bases with the blessings of Tehran.

In just one week, the area has caught fire with one attack after another. On the one hand, Israel killed the number two of Hamas’ political wing and a founding member of its armed wing, Saleh al-Aruri in Beirut, Hezbollah on Sunday struck an Israeli base on Israel’s northern border while the United States neutralized a militia commander in Baghdad