Missile attacks across ME raise Gaza conflict escalation dangers

Missile attacks in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen Saturday threw into sharp focus the increasing risk of the war in Gaza triggering a wider regional conflict pitting Iran and its allies against Israel and the United States.
Iran said five of its Revolutionary Guards were killed in a missile strike on a house in Damascus for which it blamed Israel, and security sources in Lebanon said an Israeli strike there killed a member of Hezbollah.
Later Saturday an American official said a missile or rocket attack had injured US personnel at a base in Iraq.
The United States also said it had targeted a missile the Iran-backed Houthi group in Yemen was aiming into the Red Sea, which it called a threat to shipping.
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas is part of Iran's "Axis of Resistance", a regional alliance that also includes Lebanon's Hezbollah, the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, militia groups in Iraq and the Houthis who control much of Yemen.
Over the past three months Israel has repeatedly struck at Iranian targets in Syria, while Iranian-backed groups in Syria and Iraq have fired at US targets in those countries.
Aside from Gaza, the theatre of conflict with the widest international repercussions has been the Red Sea, where the Houthis have repeatedly targeted shipping.
US and British strikes over the past week have targeted Houthi forces in Yemen.
Regional and Iranian sources say Iran and Hezbollah have personnel in Yemen helping direct attacks on shipping, though the Houthis have denied that.
Israel's intense bombardment of Gaza since Oct. 7 has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians.
Israel pounded targets across the Gaza Strip Saturday while its planes dropped leaflets on the southern area of Rafah urging Palestinians seeking refuge there to help locate hostages held by Hamas, residents said.
Palestinian fighters battled tanks trying to push back into the eastern suburbs of the Jabalia area in northern Gaza, where Israel had started pulling out troops and shifting to smaller-scale operations, residents and militants said.
In the southern area of Khan Younis, tanks shelled areas around Nasser Hospital overnight.
The Gaza health ministry said Israeli strikes have killed 165 people and wounded 280 others in the past 24 hours.