Soon after Israel declared a war in response to Palestinian militant group Hamas' surprise attacks, there are now confrontations emerging in the region.

Three members of Hezbollah were killed in Israeli bombardment. Lebanon is on the north of Israel — the two countries share a border — while Hezbollah is an Iran-backed militant group (in Lebanon), which is said be "one of Israel’s biggest foes in the region", by according to AlJazeera.

The Israel Defense Forces reportedly said that more than a dozen rockets were launched from Lebanese territory, and that the probability of an escalation along the border is "not low", according to the ABC news, an American television network.

Meanwhile, sources told Reuters that fire and smoke could be seen rising at Rashaya al-Foukhar and Zebqine, near the Lebanese-Israeli border. Similar scenes have emerged in Al-Bayada in Israel's Haifa district, after a salvo of rockets was fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel.

"In response to the rockets launched from Lebanon at Israel a short while ago, IDF tanks struck two observation posts belonging to Hezbollah...," the IDF said in a tweet on Tuesday, October 10. The exchanges of fire with the Lebanese Hezbollah have continued.

Israel is also facing assault from Syria. Now, Syria is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the west and Israel and Lebanon to the south-west. Israel's military claimed on Tuesday that unidentified projectiles were fired from Syria and appeared to have fallen in an open area.

(Credit: AP)

According to the Associated Press, there was no immediate comment from Syria. However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition war monitor, said a Palestinian faction conducted the rocket attack from Syrian territory.

In an update, the Israel Defence Force said soldiers are responding with artillery and mortar shells toward the origin of the launching in Syria. "A number of launches from Syria aimed for Israel were identified a short while ago. Part of the launches crossed into Israeli territory and presumably fell in open areas," the IDF tweeted.

Besides, Lebonon and Syria, Israel also faces threats from Iran, which has long backed the Hamas group that controls the Gaza Strip and rejects Israel's right to exist.

Iran's top authority Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denied Tehran's involvement in the Hamas group's attack on Israel. He, however, hailed what he called Israel's "irreparable" military and intelligence defeat.

Israel's conflict with other Middle-East countries

Syria and other Middle Eastern nations fought several wars with Israel in the mid-20th century. In 1967, Israel took over land located at Syria’s southwest border, called the Golan Heights. The two countries continue to have border disputes today.

Israel relations with Lebnon were also strained over the years. "Israel had occupied this swath of Lebanon along its northern border, by proxy or directly, since 1978," historian Laura Zittrain Eisenberg wrote in a journal published by the Columbia University, on May 24, 2000. said.

According to the United States of Institute of Peace, in October 2022, after more than ten years of negotiations across three administrations, Israel, Lebanon and the United States announced that an agreement had been reached between Israel and Lebanon on each country’s maritime border.

Meanwhile, Israel's relationship with Iran has also been complex. Israel has opposed to Iran's growing military role on its border. It has, time and again, launched missile attacks on Iranian targets in Syria, in response to rockets fired at its positions in the occupied Golan Heights.

Earlier this year, Iran’s Defense Ministry unveiled a drone resembling America’s armed MQ-9 Reaper, claiming that the aircraft is capable of staying airborne for 24 hours and has the range to reach the country’s archenemy Israel.

As Israel continues to fight an outright war with Palestinian military group Hamas, it is also facing skirmishes and fire exchanges at southern and northern borders. As many as 1,200 have died in Israel as of 1 pm on Wednesday, while 900 have been killed in Gaza, several reports claimed.