As Israel and Iran broaden their conflict , the Jewish nation is facing a multi-front attack from Iran’s proxies: Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen. On Sunday, while Israel was dealing with Iran’s retaliation, Houthis and Hamas launched a fresh set of attacks, reigniting wider tension in the Middle East.
Not only this, the country, which has relatively kept itself protected despite being located in one of the most turbulent regions in the world, is now facing a rising death toll, with 10 civilians losing their lives amid the Iranian retaliation this week. On Saturday, Israel said that it had attacked Iran’s energy industry and defence ministry, leaving a fuel depot ablaze.
The attack came days after Israel launched Operation Rising Lion , in which it targeted Iran’s military and nuclear targets, eliminating the top brass of the Iranian military. In response to this, Iran began Operation True Promise 3 , under which it unleashed a barrage of missiles into Israeli territory, including the country’s capital, Tel Aviv.
On Sunday morning, Tehran, Iran’s capital, issued an evacuation order to civilians living near arms factories. The country hit back after it fired 70 missiles towards Israel, many of which evaded air defences, The Guardian reported.
The Iranian missile hit a refinery in the north, killing four people in a Palestinian-majority town near the Sea of Galilee. The strikes also brought down part of a high-rise apartment block in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv. It is pertinent to note that this was the heaviest missile barrage the country has faced, and the damage from the whole ordeal was shocking to many Israelis.
Haman, Houthis open new fronts
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Israel Defence Forces announced that Hamas, the Palestinian group based in Gaza, triggered sirens in Southern Israel. The IDF noted that projectiles were launched from southern Gaza, while Israel was busy tackling Iran. “Hamas just triggered sirens in southern Israel after a projectile was launched from southern Gaza. Reminder: We are still in a multi-front war,” the IDF said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
🚨Hamas just triggered sirens in southern Israel after a projectile was launched from southern Gaza. Reminder: We are still in a multi-front war.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 15, 2025
Apart from this, the Iran-backed militant group, Houthis, said on Sunday that they have targeted Israel in coordination with Iran. This is the first time an Iran-aligned group has publicly announced a joint attack on the Jewish nation. The Yemeni group noted that it targeted central Israel’s Jaffa with several ballistic missiles in the last 24 hours. The confirmation was delivered by Houthis’ military spokesperson, Yehya Sarea, in a televised address.
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“Triumphing for the oppressed Palestinian and Iranian peoples…This operation was coordinated with the operations carried out by the Iranian army against the criminal Israeli enemy,” he said in his address.
It is important to note that the Houthis have been launching attacks against Israel, most of which have been intercepted, in what they say is support for Palestinians in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war there since Hamas’s October 7 2023, attack on Israel. The attack came after Israeli officials said that the country conducted a strike in Yemen on Saturday night in a bid to assassinate the group’s military chief of staff, Muhammad Al-Ghamari.
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin confirmed that the Israeli Air Force carried out a strike in Yemen at the same time as strikes in Iran. “Last night, while the strikes in Iran were ongoing, air force fighter jets flew over 2,000 kilometres from Israel and struck in Sanaa in Yemen. We will update later on the results of the strike,” Defrin said in a press conference on Saturday night.
How is the world reacting?
The tensions in West Asia are being watched by the world closely. As the conflict between Israel and Iran escalated for the third day, US President Donald Trump called for an end to the conflict and warned Tehran against striking US targets in the region. Trump claimed he was working behind the scenes on a deal.
“We will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran!” he said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Many calls and meetings are now taking place. I do a lot and never get credit for anything, but that’s OK, the PEOPLE understand.”
Meanwhile, G7 leaders are flying to Canada for a summit in Alberta, which will start on Monday. They are planning to use their time with the US president to urge him to keep the US out of the conflict and use his influence with Israel to broker a ceasefire.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is commencing an urgent diplomatic push to try to head off the crisis in the Middle East, as the Foreign Office warned Britons not to travel to Israel after further retaliatory attacks by Iran. Starmer discussed the ongoing clashes between Israel and Iran with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Ottawa before heading to the G7 summit in Kananaskis, in the western province of Alberta, The Guardian reported.
Similar concerns were also raised by the leaders of the European Union (EU). Global leaders from Germany, France, and Turkey called for urgent diplomacy to prevent a wider regional war. Amid the chaos, nuclear talks between the US and Iran have stalled amid the violence.
Why the world is concerned is because this is the most direct and intense confrontation between Israel and Iran in decades, with the risk of a regional conflagration higher than ever. Israel’s leadership insists the strikes are necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, while Iran claims self-defence and threatens further escalation.
