Painful Blows: Iraqi Resistance’s Attacks on Israeli Economic Arteries Are Hurting Tel Aviv

While after the initial impressive successes in the war the page was quickly turned in favor of the Israeli military with the Western supports and the Israelis began a rapid advance in the territory of Syria, and even Damascus was about to fall, on October 11, 1973, that is, on the sixth day of war, Iraqi forces joined this conflict and blocked further progress by the Israeli invaders.

Now, after many years have passed since this graceful event in the contemporary history of Iraqis, once again due to the war in Gaza, a direct front has been opened by Iraqi forces against the Israeli regime, with its domain expanding further day by day. 

Since the start of Gaza war on October 7, the Iraqi resistance factions have claimed responsibility for dozens of direct attacks on the occupied territories and also the Iraq and Syria-based forces of the US as the backers of the Israeli massacre and starvation campaign in Gaza. 

The repetition of painful, targeted and continuous strikes by Iraqi resistance on the economic and security interests of the Israeli regime in recent days strengthens the idea that with the relentless actions of the Israeli cabinet to fan the flames of war including attacking the Iranian consulate in Damascus, the Iraqi resistance seems to plan broadening Iraq's anti-Israeli front as one of the expected cards of the Axis of Resistance under 'unity of fronts' strategy. 

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq's actions and strategies 

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq unofficially joined the war on October 17, and launched attacks on the American bases in Iraq and Syria with the aim of putting pressure on Washington to force-stop the massive Israeli bombardment of Gaza. 

After the US air raid on the facilities belonging to the Iraqi forces and Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) — a voluntary force formed in 2014 in opposition to the ISIS terror organization—, which led to the martyrdom the commander of the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades Abu Baqer al-Saadi, and also the start of the ground invasion of Gaza with the green light of Washington, the Iraqi resistance declared launching the second stage of its military operations by dealing direct blows to targets in the occupied territories. 

In the initial days of the second stage, Abu Ala al-Wilaee announced drone and missile attacks on Ashdod port and before that Haifa port and disputed Karish gas field. 

Though the Iraqis over the past months have conducted several successful operations against the Israeli economic infrastructures and facilities, the world eyes were on Red Sea, where Yemen's Ansarullah have in place a maritime blockade on the Israeli ships and ports. But now that Red Sea operations are winding down, the Iraqi operations have witnessed a considerable uptick from security and strategic aspects. 

In March, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for attacks on a wide range of targets, including at least seven airports, seaports and a military airbase in Israel. By end of March, the resistance claimed responsibility for at least 9 attacks on Eilat port, 7 attacks on the occupied Golan Heights, 6 attacks on Haifa, and 2 attacks on Ben-Gurion Airport. 

On Saturday, the Islamic Resistance announced that in response to the crimes of the Israeli regime, its forces targeted Haifa oil refinery with a drone. Three days before that, this group had targeted the Ramat David air base, one of the three main Israeli air bases in the southeast of Haifa in the north of the occupied territories, an operation revealing the group's precise data bank and advanced pinpoint-accuracy weaponry and satellite technology. 

It is noteworthy that the Islamic Resistance in Iraq is a newly-founded militant group that covers a number of Iraqi resistance factions. It declared its presence after the Israeli invasion of Gaza in October. Al-Nujaba Movement and Sayyed Al-Shuhada Brigades are the key constituents of this umbrella group, firing drones and cruise missiles at Israeli regime. Some believe that this group has very likely managed to fire its missiles at the strategic port of Eilat from an unknown location, probably from the Iraqi borders with Saudi Arabia or from borders with Jordan's south. 

The group announced on January 7 and 16 that it had used Al-Arqab cruise missiles against the Israeli regime. Still, a majority of the operations, about three-fouths, are launched using drones, something showing Iraqi advances in procuring this important military technology and increasing the Israeli vulnerability. 

Earlier, Hossein Al-Mousawi, the official spokesman of the Al-Nujaba movement, told Al-Mayadeen about the reason behind focusing more on Israel's ports and other strategic facilities in the second stage, saying these attacks are aimed at depriving Israel of financial resources, putting economic pressures on Tel Aviv, and restricting the regime's maritime trade in the Mediterranean and Red Sea. 

Revealing the Iraqi resistance's capability to produce arms for its attacks, al-Mousawi added that targeting the American bases in the region and the strategic and vital facilities of the Israeli regime is the apparent part of the next stage of a long-term strategic planning of the Resistance camp. 

Over three decades ago and during the First Persian Gulf War, Akiva Eldar, a prominent Israeli author and political analyst, in a piece published by Haaretz said that there is no doubt that after end of Saddam war on Iran, the eastern front of Israel will grow highly dangerous, and sooner or later, the Israeli regime have to counter threats posed from Iraq, even if it costs thousands of lives. 

Though such a stance at that time was taken to provoke American invasion of Iraq even despite Baathi forces' retreat from Kuwait and mainly to destroy Iraqi weaponry power, now the prediction is turning out to have been made correctly by Eldar, even despite the fact that not all of the Iraqi resistance groups but only part of them have tightened the noose on Tel Aviv on the eastern front with their involvement in Gaza conflict.