Armed Iraqi factions announced on Tuesday that they had targeted several locations in Israel over the past seventy-two hours, including vital targets and an oil port. The factions, identifying themselves as “the Islamic Resistance in Iraq,” stated in two separate releases that they struck a vital target in southern Israel’s Ashkelon, the Ashkelon oil port, and another unspecified vital target.
They also mentioned attacking the Hatzerim Air Base in Beersheba, as reported by the Arab World News Agency. The strikes were described as a continuation of their approach to resisting occupation, supporting the people of Gaza, and responding to the massacres committed by the occupying entity against Palestinian civilians.
The Iraqi factions had previously claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks on Israeli targets and US forces in Iraq and Syria since the outbreak of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on October 7. On Saturday, the same factions said they had attacked oil refineries in Haifa, Israel, with drones.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war on October 7, there have been reports of increased tensions and military actions by Iraqi factions against Israel and US forces stationed in Iraq and Syria. The US has observed an uptick in attacks against its military bases in both countries, attributed to Iran-backed militias, in response to the Israel-Hamas conflict. The involvement of drones and missiles targeting US bases highlights the potential for the conflict to spill over into a broader regional crisis.
Iraqi militias, unified in their stance against Israel’s actions in Gaza, have mobilized significant demonstrations and expressed readiness to target American interests within Iraq. These actions underscore the broad support within Iraq for the Palestinian cause, from the public to parliament and armed groups. The Iraqi government’s condemnation of the Israeli aggression and the Iran-backed militias’ declared readiness to join the wider battle against Israel if Hezbollah in Lebanon is attacked, point to a unified Iraqi front against the Israeli actions in Gaza.
The potential for the Gaza-Israel war to impact Iraq is considerable, with fears that any escalation, especially involving Lebanon, could destabilize Iraq’s security, political landscape, and oil-dependent economy. The country’s history of legislation banning normalization with Israel and recent attacks on US bases by Iraqi militias signal a delicate balance within the region, susceptible to shifts in the broader Middle Eastern conflict dynamics.
