Mideast Week in Review - May 22 // FAI ONLINE

Israel — Firefights between Israeli security forces and Palestinian militants continued around the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, where a 17-year-old member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) was shot and killed by Israeli troops in a street battle during a “security operation.” An 18-year-old member of the terrorist organization was also shot and critically wounded. The Israeli military has stepped up counter-terror operations in the West Bank as a wave of terrorist attacks has killed 19 Israelis so far in 2022. At least 20 West Bank Palestinians, mostly militants, have also been killed in subsequent fighting.

The latest West Bank violence comes as Israel’s governing parliamentary coalition teeters on the edge of collapse, following the exit of Rinawie Zoabi from a leftist party that made an unusual alliance with centrist and right-wing parties last March to oust Bibi Netanyahu’s Likud from a decade of dominance in Israeli politics. Citing the “hawkish” policies of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s cabinet, Zoabi is the second Knesset member to leave the coalition this year, which began with only a one-seat advantage over the Likud-led opposition, and is now in the minority. The coming days will show whether Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud are able to form a coalition in order to return to power, or if the collapse will trigger the fifth round of parliamentary elections in under three years.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has been busy conducting two sets of exercises in preparation for a major regional conflict. Operation “Chariots of Fire” has engaged almost every element of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in a simulated attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The drills include land, air, and sea forces training for both offensive strikes against Iran and defensive measures against the inevitable response, including from Hezbollah’s massive rocket arsenal just across Israel’s northern border. The Jewish State also joined the United States, France, Greece, Cyprus, and Egypt in conducting “Argonaut 2022,” a regular, multinational exercise that simulates the evacuation of civilian populations from conflict zones around the Middle East and North Africa to find safe haven on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. It was the first run of the Argonaut exercise since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic over two years ago.

Lebanon - Several allies of the radical Shi’a Hezbollah party lost seats in the Lebanese parliament after elections were held Tuesday for the first time in four years. A slate of new independent reformist candidates won enough seats to bring an end to the parliament’s pro-Hezbollah majority coalition.

The electoral defeat of Hezbollah shows how the Iranian-sponsored party has lost credibility in the eyes of the Lebanese public after the collapse of the small nation’s economy and the August 2020 explosion at the port of Beirut, where experts believe that Hezbollah’s militant wing had been storing large amounts of ammonium nitrate. The victorious anti-Hezbollah parties, led by the Christian Lebanese Forces party, must now come together to form a government.

Syria and Syrian Kurdistan - Hostilities continued on multiple fronts across Syria last week, as Turkey and its Islamist Syrian proxies continued their offensive against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Turkish shelling around the Northeast Syrian communities of Hasakah and Ras al-Ayn on Thursday followed attacks on Kurdish PKK positions north of the city of Aleppo last Sunday. The Turkish government is reportedly upset by the US Treasury Department’s relaxation of economic sanctions on areas of Syria outside of the control of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The lifting of sanctions is intended to boost development in the war-torn and economically depressed regions of Northeast and Northwest Syria, the homeland of Syria’s Kurds. Turkey considers the SDF, a US Coalition partner in the war against ISIS, to be a “terrorist organization.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) conducted a deadly missile strike against targets at Damascus International Airport on Friday. Syrian state news and local observatories reported three Syrian military officers killed, four other individuals wounded, and “material damage” in the area of impact, allegedly a site used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). It was the third Israeli operation against Syrian targets in the last month, which have killed at least 18. The latest strike comes as Russian forces begin to withdraw from Syria to support Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The security vacuum has reportedly been filled by the IRGC, which has been working with the Syrian regime and Lebanese Hezbollah to establish a long-term presence near Syria’s border with Israel.

Iraqi Kurdistan - The Turkish military and their Iraqi opponents traded drone strikes in Iraqi Kurdistan this weekend. Two Turkish drones struck twice on Saturday in the Chamchamal district of Kurdistan, just west of the city of Sulaymaniyah, killing 3 Kurdish PKK fighters and 3 civilians. A PKK spokesman claimed that the first strike killed the three militants in a vehicle, and when two civilians rushed to the scene to assist, a second strike killed them. A separate strike on the Makhmur Refugee Camp killed a resident there. The camp has been home to Kurdish refugees since the 1990’s, when thousands fled Turkey during the height of the PKK conflict with the Turkish government there. Turkish authorities maintain that the camp is base of recruitment for the PKK.

Early Sunday, an apparent reprisal attack targeted the Turkish Zilkan base near the city of Ba’ashiqa in Northern Iraq. At least six kamikaze drones descended on the base, with casualties so far unknown. The Zilkan base sits near the border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Nineveh Province, which was previously held by the Kurdish Peshmerga until Iranian-aligned militias took it during a brief military offensive in 2017.

Sunday’s attack on Zilkan was claimed in a press release by a new militant group named Ahrar Sinjar. The tactic of using suicide drones is a growing trend amongst Iranian-supported groups across the Middle East, including Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and the Palestinian territories. US fighter jets shot down two Iranian suicide drones over Iraq in March. The American and Israeli governments reported that the drones were headed for Israel.

As the incidence of “wars and rumors of wars” continues to increase across the Middle East, we implore the Maranatha global family to join us in prayer for the opening of a “great, effectual door” for Good News in the region. We firmly believe that ongoing hostilities, upheaval, and chaos create opportunities for the message of the Prince of Peace.

Maranatha!