Israel - Hamas War One Month In

1. Israel-Hamas War One Month In

2. US Responds to Attacks - Strikes Targets in Syria

3. Houthi Forces Down US Drone Near Yemen

4. Ukrainian Bridgehead in Kherson

5. Ukraine Strikes Russian Warship in Crimea

6. Russia Continues Pressing Near Avdiivka

7. Analysis of Media Coming out of Hamas and Affiliated Groups

8. The Russian Common Denominator

9. Podcast Recommendations

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1. Israel-Hamas War One Month In

It’s been a full month since Israel responded to the October 7th Hamas attack. Aerial bombardment has been nearly constant with over 14,000 total targets struck according to Israeli officials. Israeli forces have cut off Gaza City in the north of the strip and have begun moving into the urban center in recent days. As they advance, Israel continues to release footage showing rocket launchers in children’s facilities, tunnel entrances in amusement parks and weapons storage sites in residential compounds.

Hamas is largely fighting back with small arms, RPGs, mortars and rockets. We have seen some drone dropped munitions but that doesn’t appear to be a widespread tactic at this point. It’s known that Hamas possesses plenty of IEDs, landmines, ATGMs and heavy machine guns and it’s possible those have been pulled back to defensive positions further inside of the city.

To the north Hezbollah and the IDF continue to trade blows but the war has not escalated there beyond the handful of daily attacks. It’s unclear at this point if Hezbollah plans to directly intervene but the coming weeks will be telling. If Israel’s advance through Gaza slows, it may increase the possibility of Hezbollah taking advantage of the situation and attacking from Lebanon.

While having quickly drawn a red line saying that Israel moving into Gaza would be met with a response, Iran has yet to take material action against Iran or the US in the region. There have been an increase in Iranian-backed attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria, and it has been more than in recent months, but still relatively minor all things considered. It’s possible Iran is pressing their Houthi allies in Yemen to enter the war to further complicate matters as multiple missile and drone attacks against Israel have emanated from Yemen.

The war remains in a situation where escalation is a real concern on a daily basis. It’s positive that nothing has kicked off a wider war yet but we’re still in the very early days of the Israeli ground operation in Gaza and it’s likely many regional actors are watching to see how that plays out before making their next move.

2. US Responds to Attacks - Strikes Targets in Syria