By Athena Papakosta

Exactly 365 days ago, at this time, Hamas launched its terrorist attack against Israel. More than 1,000 civilians were murdered. At least 200 were kidnapped. The Nova Music Festival, the city of Sderot and the kibbutz Kfar Azah, Nir Oz, Nahal Oz, Beeri, Kerem Shalom, Shufa, Reim, Holit and Zikim were stained with blood.

A year later, we are still counting dead. At least 42,000 Palestinians are dead. The Gaza Strip has been flattened, while the war has now spread.

Israel, today, is fighting on two fronts. One in the North and one in the South. Its military operations are escalating in Lebanon, but it is not “forgetting” about the Gaza Strip, as the Israeli military and civilian leadership prepares for an attack on Iran in retaliation for Iran’s October 1 missile attack on Israel that killed more than 180 missiles. Consequently, the Middle East has been holding its breath again for the last 24 hours.

Everyone knows there will be a response from Israel, but no one knows when. What is Israel waiting for? The obvious thing is that the reasons for waiting are related to the way of the answer. What will the goals be? These related discussions start from Iran’s energy infrastructure and the positions of the Revolutionary Guards, reach to factories manufacturing military armaments such as ballistic missiles and end up to Tehran’s nuclear facilities. However, how Iran will react cannot be missing from the scale.

Washington does not want an all-out war that would drag the United States into it, and even 28 days before the country’s presidential elections. He also pressures Israel not to strike Tehran’s nuclear or oil infrastructure. However, Israel does not seem to be listening to what the White House is saying.

Speaking to the American television network CNN, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galand emphasized that Israel is cooperating with the United States as it prepares its response, but made it clear that Israel will decide on its own how to respond against Iran. He pointed out that despite American objections to strikes against nuclear facilities, “everything remains on the table” adding in a separate statement that if Iran chooses to harm Israel, then it will end up like Beirut and Gaza.

At the same time, for yet another night the Israeli military launched another heavy airstrike against Dahiya, Hezbollah’s stronghold in the Lebanese capital, with the Shiite group striking the northern Israeli city of Haifa. They were preceded for the first time in months by new evacuation orders in the northern part of the Gaza Strip declaring a “new phase of war” and the visit of the Israeli prime minister to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon during which he told soldiers “together we will win”.