Israel’s disgraceful Gaza retreat and terror attacks in Damascus, Beirut, Kerman

By Julia Kassem

On the fourth anniversary of the martyrdom of Iran’s top anti-terror commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani, terrorist attacks ripped the bustling streets of Kerman, where tens of thousands of people had converged to pay homage to him, leaving at least 91 people dead.

The suicide bombings came amid the Israeli regime’s three-month-long genocidal war on the Gaza Strip and the desire to expand that beyond the besieged coastal territory, from Damascus to Beirut to Kerman.

Israeli military general Yitzhak Barik admitted that the occupation army is “sinking into the mud of Gaza” from failure to destroy Hamas and release captives – the key goals outlined by the Tel Aviv regime.

Pressure had been mounting on the Benjamin Netanyahu regime in recent weeks, including from Western allies, to end the aggression and siege on Gaza, which have proved an exercise in futility.

Even US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, at his press conference in Tel Aviv on December 18, vaguely suggested that Israel had failed to make any substantial gains in Gaza for almost three months.

It came days after the Zionist entity received humiliating blows in Shujayeh on December 13, knocking out entire battalions of its elite and much-hyped Golani Brigade.

Despite the US going out of its way to militarily bolster the occupying regime, it continues to move toward annihilation. The Israeli death toll stands at more than 500, besides over 5,000 injured soldiers.

According to the latest reports, around 13,500 Israeli forces have also been declared disabled since Oct. 7, with varying degrees of physical and mental disabilities. 

The Israeli occupation has failed to deal with the strategy mastered by Palestinian resistance fighters, catching them by surprise in both ground and underground battles.

On December 21, the Zionists announced the withdrawal of their so-called “elite” brigade from Gaza, which was followed by the withdrawal of thousands of more troops from the territory.

It is undeniable that the Palestinian resistance remains strong and steadfast, unshaken by the army whose colossal investments in military technology, airpower, and surveillance could not compensate for its complete lack of a capable and determined fighting force.

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The monumental rise of the Axis of Resistance – from Palestine to Syria to Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen – in 2023 has set new equations in the region and rattled the United States and the Israeli regime.

After the humiliating withdrawal of the Golani Brigade from Gaza, which marked a major setback for the regime, it resorted to attacks beyond Gaza – starting from Damascus where senior Iranian military advisor Seyyed Razi Mousavi was assassinated.

The occupation continued to pull out troops from Gaza, in a humiliating way.  

Since October 7, the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement, in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance, has pushed the regime into a corner with its high-precision strikes on Israeli targets.

The occupation army has been kept busy on the northern front – with half a million settlers who have evacuated and not come back – 250,000 of those on the northern front alone.

To deflect attention from massive losses against both the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance,  the regime moved to assassinate senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in the suburbs of Beirut.

Yet this attack did nothing to change the reality of the new equation on the ground. As Arouri mentioned in a recent speech, death and threat of assassination fail to extinguish the momentum of resistance, and the blood shed by previous martyrs has historically only strengthened the Palestinian resistance.

“Abu Ammar [Yaser Arafat] was martyred along with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and all the leaders of Hamas. Abu Ali Mustafa [PFLP leader] and thousands of martyrs. Our blood and souls are not more precious or more valued than any martyr. First and last, the martyr who preceded us is superior to us,” he was quoted as saying.

These comments were made in the light of Netanyahu’s threats to assassinate Arouri in August and the Israeli premier’s resolve to ignite a destructive, regional fire in order to buy time out of jail and stall the inevitable implosion amidst the occupation’s internal and external crisis.

The last two years have seen mounting corruption charges against Netanyahu and widespread opposition and protests by the settlers against the settler-colonial regime, a harbinger of his destruction.

The latest incident in Kerman, where a gathering of mourners was targeted by two suicide bombers, reveals how Zionists and Takfiris aren’t strange bedfellows. Daesh is only a cover for the Zionist entity.

As the founder of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khomeini once said – “kill us – our nation will become more awakened.” Israeli regime is doomed and these acts of terror only show its frustration.

Julia Kassem is a freelance writer, having contributed to Detroit's own Riverwise, Against the Current, and nationally syndicated outlets such as Counterpunch, Mintpressnews, and TruthOut.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)

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