October 6, 2024: The Hamas October 2023 attack out of Gaza left over a thousand Israelis and foreigners dead. This led to a series of attacks by Israel and its enemies against each other. In July 2024 the Yemen Houthi militia launched an Iranian-made drone against the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. This one got past the many Israeli air defenses and struck an apartment building. This left one resident dead and ten wounded. Israel retaliated the next day with F-15 and F-35 airstrikes against the Yemen port of Hudaydah. The Israelis destroyed a power plant, a fuel storage depot, and port equipment used to unload container ships. Twenty people were killed and nearly a hundred injured. The port is essential to the Houthis to bring in additional Iranian weapons for use against Red Sea shipping.

This airstrike was 1,700 kilometers from Israeli air bases. Iran noted that the distance to similar Iranian targets is only 1,500 kilometers. For the Yemen attack the aerial refueling took place over the Red Sea. An attack on Iran would have to pass over several Arab countries that are hostile towards Iran. The attacks on Houthis are also meant to diminish the attacks the Houthis are making on commercial shipping moving north to the Egyptian Suez Canal. The canal is a major source of income, providing Egypt with about $10 billion a year. The Houthi attacks have forced many ships to take the longer route around the southern tip of Africa. Because of the impact on international trade, several countries, including the United States, have sent naval forces to attack the Houthis. This included an American aircraft carrier which contributed air strikes against the Houthis.

In northern Israel, the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon began making rocket attacks into Israel. This killed several children. Israel retaliated with a long planned attack that involved detonating explosives that Israeli operatives had inserted into thousands of these pagers. Because of the increasing threat from Hezbollah, Israel activated the explosive pagers. This killed dozens of Hezbollah operatives and wounded several thousand. The next day a similar attack caused Hezbollah handheld radios to explode. At this point Hezbollah was out of action and unable to use any modern communication devices. Couriers and email were available, but Israel had hacked email systems before. The chaos caused by the lack of communications within Hezbollah was compounded by an air strike that killed two Hezbollah leaders.

Since the October 2023 attacks Israel has surprised its enemies with a series of counter attacks. The exploding pagers and radios was something Hezbollah didn’t expect. Iran declared itself victorious, even though all but one of its attacks had been thwarted. Iran is still burdened by wide ranging heavy economic sanctions. Iran, along with Russia and North Korea are arrayed against the rest of the world in a futile effort to defeat their enemies. Unable to do that, Iran, Russia and North Korea annoy their enemies as much as they can. If this is World War 3, it isn’t turning out as expected.