- [Announcer] Israeli forces
wrapping up ground operations in the Gaza Strip. - Prevent Israel war--
- Between Israel and Hamas threatening to--
- Sending that aircraft carrier into the wider region.
(building exploding) (electronic music) - The war between Israel
and Hamas is escalating as Israeli troops begin
their ground invasion into the Gaza Strip. - [Announcer] Urban combat as
they advance towards the Gaza. - But this war isn't just
between these two sides. It actually involves multiple
countries and groups, all with different
interests and capabilities and all with the power
to influence this war. In this video I wanna show
you each of these groups. I wanna show you who
they are, what they want, what their calculations are. And to show you how this war between Israel and Hamas
is threatening to spread. Spread to the rest of the region, but also to the rest of the world. - [Announcer] And U.S.
officials are worried that this could escalate
beyond just a conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians and could in fact become a regional war. (men chanting) - The Gaza Strip is one of
two Palestinian territories. It's home to over 2 million Palestinians and it's different than the West Bank. The West Bank is cut up and governed by a mix of Israeli occupation and a Palestinian national government. Gaza, on the other hand,
is governed by Hamas. An Islamist organization
with a militia wing whose mission is to
resist and oppose Israel to fight against Israeli
occupation of Palestinians by whatever means necessary, including terrorism and violence. Hamas chose October 7th, 2023 to launch their most deadly attack. Breaking down the border wall
surrounding the Gaza Strip and massacring civilians in a ground and rocket assault on Israel. This terrorist attack killed
an estimated 1,400 Israelis and Hamas ended up taking 229 hostages back to the Gaza Strip. - Hamas is expert at using
tunnels and basements to hide people, including hostages. - It was a senseless
slaughter of innocent lives and it was the most deadly
attack in Israel's history. Immediately after the attack,
Israel declares war on Hamas. They call up a reservist
force of 360,000 soldiers and they immediately start
bombing the Gaza Strip. - [Announcer] Thousands of airstrikes and Gaza is now cut off from
electricity, water, and food. - Their stated mission is not just to strike back against Hamas, but to end the group forever. - [Announcer] Israel's
furious strikes on Gaza are laying waste to entire neighborhoods. (people panicking) (electronic music) - Israel says that the
north of the Gaza Strip is now an evacuation zone
that they're going to bomb. And they tell the 1 million
Palestinians living there to leave, to evacuate towards the South. (person speaking foreign language) But Palestinians can't leave this area. Their southern border is with Egypt and Egypt has vowed that
they will not let anyone in. The Prime Minister made this
point very clearly by saying that Egypt is willing to sacrifice, quote millions of lives to avoid allowing Palestinians into Egypt. So the airstrikes continue and Israel says that they're preparing
for a ground invasion to send troops into the Gaza Strip, to target Hamas fighters and leaders. (ominous music) This is when Israel's most
important ally swoops in. - [Announcer] Joe Biden,
the U.S. president has landed in Israel. - President Joe Biden travels to Israel and urges the Israeli Prime Minister to not make the same mistake
that the U.S. made after 9/11. Sending in troops to wage
a grueling and doomed war against highly motivated fighters and eventually ending up
fighting in dense cities where militants and
civilians blend together. (electronic music) The U.S. learned that no matter how
powerful your military is, this kind of warfare is brutal and very difficult to
achieve any kind of victory. The U.S. is also worried
that if Israel invades Gaza, that it will trigger a broader
conflict in the Middle East. And this is where we need to zoom out to get a bigger-picture look
at the rest of this region. (electronic music) - [Announcer] War between Israel and Hamas threatens to explode
into the wider region. - If we wanna understand the
geopolitics of this region, you have to look at Iran. Iran is the country that
wants to be the most powerful and influential country
in the Middle East. This puts them in direct
conflict with Israel, a powerful country that is nuclear-armed that is also a foothold
for the United States to project its power in the Middle East in Iran's neighborhood. (electronic music) So there's this deep enmity
between Iran and Israel and by extension, the United States. (electronic music) Instead of attacking Israel directly, which would be a catastrophe, Iran opposes Israel by funding
a network of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish militia
groups and governments around the region. Giving them money and weapons as part of what they call
the axis of resistance against Israel and by
extension, the United States. One of these groups in the
axis of resistance is Hamas. Iran supports Hamas by
giving them training, money, and very importantly, weapons. Like the thousands of rockets that Hamas fired into
Israel on October 7th as a part of their attack. This axis of resistance exists to keep constant pressure on Israel, to make Israel think twice
about ever attacking Iran. Iran needs Israel to think that this network is a credible threat, that they will act if
Israel does something that they don't like. So as Israel bombards the Gaza Strip killing all of these civilians, Iran and their axis of resistance
feels pressure to respond. So you start to see all
these small-scale attacks all throughout the region targeting Israeli and American targets. - [Announcer] Increasing
attacks by Iranian proxies on U.S. forces stationed in the region. - Most of this action breaks out in Israel's northern border with Lebanon, home to Iran's most powerful
proxy group called Hezbollah. A political and military organization with tens of thousands
of well-trained soldiers. They're armed to the teeth
and they're funded by Iran. They have over 100,000
missiles of varying ranges capable of hitting almost all of Israel. Hezbollah is actually a much
greater threat to Israel than Hamas in Gaza. And in the weeks following the attack, Hezbollah shows that
they're ready to fight by shooting at Israeli
military installations along this border region, Israel strikes back at Hezbollah
in these border skirmishes, threatening an escalation. They drop bombs on two airports in Syria. Airports where Iran sends weapons
and supplies to Hezbollah. It looks like an escalation, especially as Israel moves most of its soldiers up here, not to Gaza. While tens of thousands of
Israeli citizens are evacuated. - Attacks by Hezbollah
and Israel are continuing with its fighters destroying
an Israeli attack. - [Johnny] The U.S.
continues to urge Israel not to invade Gaza, fearing that a ground invasion would cross Hezbollah's red line and provoke them to invade from the north, turning this into a two-front war. Which could boil over
into a three-front war if Palestinians in the West Bank rise up and start fighting with Israeli settlers and soldiers who occupy the West Bank. - [Announcer] The key to
a spread of the conflict lies on the Israel-Lebanon border. If that becomes a second front, the entire region will then feel the heat. - One of the paradoxes of global conflict is that even when all of the sides don't actually want a full-scale war, they have nothing to gain from it. A full-scale war can break out anyway. And in this case, what
might not be obvious is that Hezbollah and Iran actually don't want a
full-scale war with Israel, which would bring a war to Lebanon, a country that has been
crumbling under economic turmoil in recent years, for which
some Lebanese blame Hezbollah. A war would deepen this crisis and deepen the resentment for Hezbollah and threaten their ability
to operate in Lebanon. And yet, as Israeli jets continue
to bombard the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah and their Iranian
sponsors have to show that they are willing to act, that they are a credible threat, that they have red lines
that are being crossed. This is the deadly game of chicken that escalates conflicts like this. This is what turns them into a situation that no one can control. But another paradox of global conflict is that some threats of force can actually diffuse the tension, can stabilize an escalating conflict. At least that's the bet that the United States made here. - The Pentagon's deploying 300
more troops to the Mideast. - [Johnny] While Israel was still debating whether or not to send troops into Gaza, the U.S. deploys two naval strike groups. One off the coast of Israel and the other off the coast of Iran. These groups are made up
of huge aircraft carriers accompanied by supply and warships. We're talking 15,000 sailors in total standing watch as this conflict escalates. The U.S. also readies its
missile defense systems and prepares soldiers for deployment. It's a huge show of force, and it's the U.S. trying to
use its superior military power to send a signal to Iran and its proxies that they're there and they're watching and that they will be dragged
in to any escalating conflict. - To any country, any organization, anyone thinking of taking
advantage of the situation, I have one word, don't, don't. - And then against the warning of the United States, Israel
sends troops into Gaza. - [Announcer] Israeli troops and tanks advanced further into Gaza
engaged in urban combat. - The ground invasion is
more limited than expected, but it's what the Israeli Prime Minister is calling the second stage in their plan to completely destroy
Hamas and its leadership. As Israeli troops flooded into
Gaza, the big question was, would Hezbollah act? Would they invade from the north? And surprisingly, they didn't. And this shows us three things
that weren't as clear before. Number one, it shows
that the price of a war for Lebanon is huge and that Hezbollah is taking that into account. They stand accountable
to the Lebanese people and Lebanon does not want war. It also shows us that Iran is hesitant to use Hezbollah in this context. Hezbollah is their most
powerful card to play in deterring Israel from
ever attacking them. And in using it to protect Palestinians, they will weaken Hezbollah's
role as a deterrent. Or to say it bluntly, what this shows us is Iran cares much more about its own security than it does about the plight of the Palestinians. (electronic music) But the third thing that this shows is that Hezbollah believes that Israel will not be
successful in their mission to eradicate Hamas. According to a Lebanese diplomat who talked to the New York Times, Hezbollah has been quote
quietly telling its partners that it believes that
Hamas is in a good position and does not yet need Hezbollah's help. And indeed, Hamas itself
has come out and said that they're ready, that they've been preparing
for a ground invasion because they have an advantage. Inevitably, this ground invasion will mean luring Israeli soldiers into a labyrinth of
densely populated cities where fighters can easily hide
and blend in with civilians. Not to mention Hamas' huge
network of hundreds of kilometers of underground tunnels where
they can hide, store supplies, and store their hostages. - [Announcer] The tunnels
also have a psychological use, an unseen, unpredictable
angle designed to keep enemies wondering when and where
they'll be ambushed. - [Announcer] For any
Israeli ground offensive, this may prove the biggest challenge. - It's a truly excruciating
kind of warfare in every conceivable sense. - This is a quickly changing situation and I don't know what
the conflict looks like when you are watching this, but right now the bombardment
of Gaza continues. The death toll of
Palestinians is skyrocketing. The people are running
out of food and water and medical supplies. The UN is condemning
Israel's response saying that there's no justification
for what Hamas did, but Israel's response is too much. Too many civilians are being killed. Some at the UN are even
calling Israel's actions potential war crimes. And the world is calling
for a pause in the fighting, a ceasefire that would
allow humanitarian aid to get into the strip. But a ceasefire is something
that Israel's Prime Minister says is not on the table. - After the horrific
attacks of October 7th, calls for a ceasefire are calls for Israel
to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism,
to surrender to barbarism. That will not happen. - Egypt has just started
letting foreign nationals and severely wounded people
in the Gaza Strip leave and cross into their country, but they continue to deny
entry to the vast majority of Palestinians who remain trapped inside of this small rectangle. But they are together
with Qatar helping mediate between the sides. Already facilitating a deal
that released four hostages that Hamas had captured on October 7th. For now, Iran's axis of
resistance stands deterred from escalating this any further. Continuing small attacks, but calculating that a wider
spread conflict isn't worth it, especially as the U.S. moves
its troops into position. It is a delicate balance. One that could easily break or spiral. All it takes is one miscalculation, one attack that was meant to be a message, but actually kills dozens of people and elicits a stronger response, which in turn elicits
a stronger retaliation, which could lead to an escalation, a spiral into a catastrophic
war in the Middle East. (electronic music) And in the middle of this all, people and families who
wanted nothing to do with any of this, who don't care about the
geopolitical calculations and the balance of power
in the Middle East, millions of people confined to a war zone. Not sure if the last
thing they'll ever see is the next airstrike from Israeli jets. Innocent civilian hostages
kept in underground tunnels, not sure if they'll ever
see their families again. And the families who are mourning the loss of their loved ones who were taken by this senseless conflict. And at the root of it all, the leaders in charge of
protecting their people, but who have instead chosen to
pursue policies of division, occupation, violence, and hatred. The ingredients that produced
this current situation. (person speaking foreign language) So for now, we will watch
as the Middle East sinks towards deeper and deeper conflict. And we will hope that
level heads will prevail in the decision-making and
that somehow we can prevent more suffering and more loss of life. This is gearing up to be months, if not years of conflict in this region and I'll be following it and trying to make sense
of it for everyone. If you want a broader context
of what the Gaza Strip is and what the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict is all about, which I did not cover in this piece, there is a great series
called "Modern Conflicts" by RealLifeLore where
he goes into the roots and the context of this conflict. It's very, very important to understand if you want to try to make
sense of what's going on here. The "Modern Conflicts" series is available exclusively on Nebula, which is a streaming platform that is run by all of us creators. I put all of my videos up
there early and ad-free, and there's a bunch of exclusive content including the "Modern Conflicts"
series by RealLifeLore. But there's tons of other
coverage of Israel and Palestine, and it's a great way to learn
not just about this conflict, but many other conflicts
and topics and histories. I mean, on Nebula, there
is a huge diversity of really fantastic educational videos. A lot of it exclusive to Nebula, so you can't watch it anywhere else. Last year, like 10,000
of you signed up for this after I talked about it
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Vox colleague, Sam Ellis. Sam's working on a big video right now that's another angle of the
geopolitics of the Middle East, which we'll be publishing in a few weeks so make sure to go over and
subscribe to not miss it. (electronic music)
