The relentless developments since October 7, 2023, culminating in the June 2025 war, have proven that Israel possesses a rigorous strategic system showing no leniency or hesitation when confronting any threat.
Israel faced a bloody terrorist attack in which Hamas killed and kidnapped civilians, including the elderly and children, and raped women, demonstrating the attacking side’s complete lack of a moral compass.
Israel, in turn, proved its resilience and ability to swiftly shift to an offensive posture, inflicting painful lessons on the aggressors and forcefully resetting the rules of engagement with an iron fist.
This denied them any chance to interpret hesitation as weakness and left an indelible mark on the enemy, a lasting memory in its collective consciousness.
The most dangerous aspect of this threat manifested in the terrorist operation carried out by Hamas, a complete crime targeting innocent civilians with unrestrained savagery.
The terrorists resorted to killing, kidnapping, and humiliating families, the elderly, and children in ways that revealed criminal cruelty beyond justification. This confirmed that these actions are neither isolated nor incidental but rather a pattern ingrained in Hamas’s criminal structure, whose behavior mirrors organized gangs driven by a doctrine of hatred.
Israel's military response to Hamas and Iran
Because Israel fully understands that tolerance toward this would lead to wider and repeated disasters, it moved without hesitation to adopt a military-intelligence approach based on preemptive deterrence and operational superiority.
Within a short period, Israel reconstituted a precise target bank encompassing leaders, facilities, and logistical supply sources. It established a complex offensive pattern combining swift airstrikes, dismantling the enemy’s infrastructure, and hunting down its prominent figures in broad daylight.
This sent an unequivocal message that Israel’s reach will extend to anyone daring to threaten it.
The June 2025 war solidified this decisive security philosophy. Facing Iran, the state that boasts of being the primary sponsor of terrorist factions, Israel launched ultra-precision operations, striking sensitive nuclear and military facilities and assassinating senior leaders in locations once deemed impregnable.
The assassination of over 15 prominent officials, including nuclear experts, was not merely a tactical strike. It was a shocking step that shattered Tehran’s aura of invincibility, proving beyond doubt that when Israel decides to strike, it does not settle for verbal warnings or passing statements.
Crippling Iran's terrorist proxies
Alongside these lightning strikes against the “head of the snake,” the scope of operations expanded to include Iran’s terrorist proxies emboldened by its financial and logistical support. In Gaza, Israel crippled Hamas’s operational capabilities and tightened the noose on its leaders, leaving the terrorist movement floundering in a state of helplessness and loss of control.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah’s leadership found itself forced to drink from the same bitter cup, leaving its facilities vulnerable to destruction and its leaders subject to regular assassination. This strict punitive method has proven most effective in subduing anyone deluded into thinking they can threaten Israel’s security without consequence.
In Yemen, the attacks by Tehran-backed Houthis revealed once more that the militia is merely a cheap tool serving Iran’s expansionist schemes. These assaults confirmed the necessity of expanding Israel’s target bank and repeatedly destroying sites and ports used by the Houthi gangs to store missiles and ship weapons.
Israel even struck relentlessly at their funding networks and banks, making them pay the full price for their assaults.
Defense Minister Israel Katz expressed this clearly, stating: “Yemen will be treated like Tehran. After striking the head of the snake in Tehran, we will also strike the Houthis in Yemen. Whoever raises a hand against Israel – that hand will be cut off.”
This statement encapsulates a security philosophy that knows no mercy. It considers every terrorist proxy an extension of a single body that must be relentlessly crushed. This shatters the delusion held by these organizations that they can harm Israel’s security repeatedly without facing severe consequences.
Israel’s experience with these terrorist organizations over the past two years clearly demonstrates that political weakness or symbolic responses are no longer effective. Resolving the conflict with terrorism is achieved only through painful operations that dismantle the enemy’s structure, cripple its resources, and topple its leadership.
These operations prove that destroying terrorist bases, draining their funding, and hunting their leaders is not a situational choice or an emotional reaction, but a solid strategic doctrine imposing a new reality in the Middle East.
The writer is a UAE political analyst and former Federal National Council candidate.