Up until 1 April, Israel was increasingly being viewed by Western leaders as a near-rogue state. Though US President Joe Biden was still not calling for a ceasefire – despite being the only world leader who can do so – he was reportedly ramping up pressure on his Israeli counterpart, Binyamin Netanyahu, to end the siege on Gaza, allow far more aid into the enclave, and work towards an end to the fighting.
But the entire situation changed after Israel launched an air attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria. Amid fears of a probable military response from Iran, Israel became a Western ally once more. When Iran’s counterattack did indeed come, on 13 April, it was met by not only the IDF, but also by US, British and French militaries, with additional support from Arab nations allied to the West, such as Jordan.
After weeks of escalating tensions between the two countries, Israel had been expected to deliver a major attack on Iran in the days before it bombed Damascus. Its eventual strike killed 16 people, but having followed warnings that Israel might target Iran’s civil and presumed military nuclear programme, it was considered a small-scale affair by many Western analysts – so much so that hard-line members of Netanyahu’s coalition were deeply critical of it.
Whatever Netanyahu’s motives in the Damascus attack, one result was briefly minimising the media coverage of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza. The number of Palestinians killed is nearing 35,000, including at least 12,000 children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, with double that number having been injured and many more missing.
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