The agreement between Israel and Hamas to release 50 hostages held in Gaza in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners will be repeated later this month. Israeli media wrote this, citing a Palestinian official. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this would mean the full release of 100 of the approximately 240 people detained by Hamas in the October 7 attack.
Meanwhile, the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas has highlighted Iran’s weakness, which has gone from the role of the main supporter of the Palestinian armed struggle to a secondary actor, irrelevant in the developments of recent weeks. The rhetorical approach followed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in recent years, consisting of threats and scathing statements with a strong ideological impact, was contained in some interventions and pragmatic silence. More than a month and a half after the start of the conflict, Tehran’s role was almost nil. At the same time, Iran had no say in the agreement regarding the hostage exchange in the last few hours. The possibility of a direct attack on Israel, which Tehran does not recognize, was never real. The option of aggression by proxy on the part of Lebanese Hezbollah allies came into conflict with the influence in the area of Turkey and Arab countries, which do not want the conflict to widen. Iranian armed groups in Syria have been knocked out by American rockets in recent weeks. All the factors that limited Tehran’s range of action, limited to supporting Hamas not in the conflict, but in order to put an end to hostilities that at least guarantees its survival. The era in which proxy warfare constituted Tehran’s main instrument of influence in the Middle East appears to have come to an end. Even the accusations against the ayatollahs, which began immediately after the Hamas attack on October 7, quickly disappeared. In fact, no evidence of Tehran’s direct involvement has emerged and Khamenei has denied knowledge of the attack plan.
Source: IL Tempo
John Cameron is a journalist at The Nation View specializing in world news and current events, particularly in international politics and diplomacy. With expertise in international relations, he covers a range of topics including conflicts, politics and economic trends.
