Hamas launched a surprise attack into southern Israel from Gaza last October in response to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the alleged “Judaization” of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque. Tel Aviv responded with a months-long aerial and ground war in Gaza. To date, over 1,450 Israelis and 30,000+ Palestinians have been killed.
Iran’s Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman-adjacent southern coastline stretches roughly 1,700 km and is home to over half a dozen US military bases, making it vital for the Islamic Republic to maintain adequate military resources to defend its shores using asymmetric means.
NATO members are obligated by a Defense Investment Pledge to devote no less than two percent of their GDP annually to defense spending, but most US allies are underperforming, according to Senator Lindsey Graham.
The hospital is the Gaza Strip’s second-largest in the southern Khan Younis city and it is where 200 patients now remain.