Israel Map Shows Areas Hit by Fire Attacks From Gaza

Palestinian militants have staged a number of indirect fire attacks on Israel from Gaza, primarily on regions bordering the territory, where Hamas and Islamic Jihad operate, as shown on a map of Israel provided by a military affairs think tank on Monday.

The latest analysis by The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) shows that there were 36 confirmed instances of mortar and rocket strikes on Israeli territory, while there were fewer small arms clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in the West Bank, which is not controlled by Hamas.

It said it had not recorded any reported infiltrations or clashes on the Gazan border, as Israel gears up for a large-scale assault, but that "Hamas remains committed to expanding the war to the West Bank."

Around 1,500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants staged armed assaults on Israel on October 7, killing civilians and taking hostages. Since then, Israel has targeted militant sites in Gaza, which it says are often placed in civilian areas or buildings, and has forewarned civilians in those areas ahead of air strikes.

As of Tuesday, the Gaza Health Ministry said 2,778 Palestinians have been killed and 9,700 wounded in Israeli actions since October 7, according to the Associated Press, while Israel says more than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, and at least 199 others have been taken hostage in the same period, the AP reports.

Israel has indicated it was preparing a much larger offensive in Gaza, which will likely increase the death toll significantly on both sides.

With units massing on the border with the Palestinian territory and some 300,000 reservists called up, on Saturday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was "currently preparing to implement a wide range of operational offensive plans" including coordinated strikes by air, sea and land.

The ISW said Hamas militants had claimed responsibility for 18 mortar and rocket attacks on Israel on Monday, while Islamic Jihad claimed a further six, based on social media posts from the organizations. The militant wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed two strikes while another 10 went unclaimed.

Most of the attacks from Gaza were on targets around its border, but some affected Sderot and one rocket fell as far away as Beer Sheva.

The ISW recorded nine small arms clashes in the West Bank, down from 32 on Friday, when Hamas had called for Muslims worldwide to participate in a "Day of Jihad." It added that Israeli forces had arrested 20 Hamas-affiliated individuals in the Palestinian territory, and noted it had "previously suggested that arrest campaigns in the West Bank may be contributing to the declining violence."

While Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed, Lebanese Islamist Shiite militant group, claimed six attacks on northern Israel, the ISW recorded just one mortar attack. The IDF has said there were multiple clashes on the border with Lebanon, including militants shooting military surveillance equipment.

Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told Al Jazeera on Sunday that Israel's continued assault on Gaza is making a war on multiple fronts "increasingly more probable." He has also threatened the U.S. over its naval assets in the eastern Mediterranean, and experts have warned that their deployment against Hezbollah— which has called for the obliteration of Israel—risks an escalation to the conflict.

However, the ISW said Iran had signaled "its unwillingness to enter a direct conflict with Israel" without being subject to a direct attack. Instead, it is "preparing for the Hamas-Israel war to expand into a regional conflict" with militants deployed to southern Lebanon and Syria, and "would likely provide material and financial support to its proxies to fight Israel."

Newsweek approached the Israeli Ministry of Defense via email for comment on Tuesday.

When Hezbollah last attacked Israel, in 2006, it proved catastrophic for those living in southern Lebanon, while during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Israeli forceds were able to push halfway to the Syrian capital of Damascus while facing battles on multiple fronts.

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