According to reporting by The Jerusalem Post, senior Israeli defense officials assess that Hamas is closely coordinating with Hezbollah and its patron Iran to revive the so‑called “axis of resistance,” even as the IDF steps up targeted strikes in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon. The officials fear that what now appears as limited, localized friction could, with a single miscalculation, erupt into a multi‑front war drawing in regional and global powers.
The latest assessments come on the heels of an IDF operation that killed the commander of Hamas’s Zeitoun Battalion in Gaza and a string of airstrikes in southern Lebanon. Military sources say Hamas’s military wing has been quietly rebuilding since the ceasefire took effect – gathering intelligence, recruiting and training new operatives, and scouting for what they describe as “operational opportunities” to launch a surprise, limited attack against IDF units inside Palestinian territory, in direct violation of the truce.
Southern Command officers warn that these moves are not defensive preparations but part of a deliberate effort to restore offensive capability under the cover of calm. Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Asor, the Southern Command chief, is said to favor a significantly more aggressive campaign against Hamas’s emerging infrastructure inside the Strip, arguing that every week of restraint allows the organization to recover from previous blows and prepare the next round of fighting.
On the northern front, the picture is equally alarming. Hamas and Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon, backed and financed by Iran, are reportedly working to rebuild terror networks, smuggle and reposition weapons into southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, and intensify training for a future confrontation with Israel. Recent IDF strikes, including attacks near the southern Lebanese town of Chehour on November 19, have targeted what Israel describes as Hezbollah infrastructure and personnel involved in the rearmament effort.
Military sources say Hezbollah is acting in open defiance of ceasefire understandings, moving in the opposite direction of any supposed demilitarization of southern Lebanon. The IDF’s Northern Command leadership, like its counterpart in the south, is pressing for a tougher response to these violations, but officials say sustained pressure from Washington is, for now, “tying Israel’s hands behind its back.”
Compounding the sense of looming danger is the Syrian arena. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent visit to Syria, together with the defense minister, foreign minister and Shin Bet director, was intended as a blunt message to both Washington and Syrian President Ahmad al‑Sharaa: Israel will not relinquish its security belt on the Syrian Golan Heights, even amid talk in Damascus of normalizing relations in exchange for an IDF withdrawal.
Israeli security officials are deeply skeptical of the burgeoning rapprochement between the White House and Damascus, reportedly mediated by Turkey. They argue that al‑Sharaa’s jihadist past cannot be erased by diplomacy or by the US decision to lift the bounty on his head, and stress that he does not fully control Syrian territory – much of which remains a corridor for Iranian weapons and militias.
Taken together, the developments in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria paint a volatile picture of a region primed for sudden, simultaneous escalation. Israeli officials warn that without decisive action to curb the coordinated rebuilding of Hamas and Hezbollah, and without clear red lines enforced against Iran’s involvement, the Middle East could be only one incident away from its most dangerous multi‑front war in decades.