There is a "real possibility" that the war between Israel and Hamas will grow into a larger war, Fred Fleitz, a senior fellow at the America First Policy Institute, told Newsmax on Sunday while commenting on the news of an Israeli strike overnight in the West Bank city of Jenin.
"People don't realize that Hamas is very popular in the West Bank," Fleitz told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "Jenin is a hornet's nest of terrorism and instability and as the events are destabilizing in Gaza and along the northern border, there is a real problem."
Saturday, an Israeli Border Police officer was killed when a roadside bomb went off during an Israeli raid on Jenin's refugee camp, while seven Palestinians were killed in an airstrike on the camp during the raid, reports The Times of Israel.
Officials said the Israeli soldier, Sgt. Shay Germay, 19, was killed, while three of her comrades were injured by the bomb.
The Israel Defense Forces and police, in a joint statement, said Israeli forces had entered Jenin for a counterterrorism operation when the explosive device, planted by the side of the road, hit the border patrol vehicle.
Meanwhile, Fleitz said that he does not believe that Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is in the region for talks, will not mention the growing tensions between Lebanon and Israel.
"I think during his trip, his focus is to wind down the war and to push Israel to agree to some type of post-war plan to govern Gaza," said Fleitz, adding that there are "major disagreements between the United States and Israel. I don't think they will be resolved during this trip."
Retired Israeli Maj. Shadi Khalloul, also on the program, commented that he thinks Blinken's visit to different countries should come with a request or demand for the Lebanese government to dismantle Hezbollah from its weapons.
"We cannot allow this Hezbollah to make another genocide in our northern front" like Hamas did on Oct. 7 with its attacks, said Khalloul, calling for the implantation of a resolution to dismantle the Hezbollah terrorist organization.
"We saw yesterday Hezbollah firing rockets and very accurate precision-guided missiles, strategically placed very deep inside Israel," he said. Adding that otherwise, people in the northern front will not return to their homes.
"Where I am, everything is now not functioning," Khalloul said. "The economy is not functioning and businesses are closed. Schools are closed for more than 90 days here. Citizens are waiting to see if there is a future for them and we have no future until now."
He added that he sees a "big war between Iran, with its proxies against Israel… Iran wants to buy time."
Khalloul also said that he believes Hezbollah will continue to escalate the conflict, despite ongoing negotiations, because it's in "Iranians' interest at the end."
"We are here dealing with Iranian interests and not with the other countries that Blinken is visiting," he said. "What Iran is trying to make here is to put itself in a strategic level that everybody needs to speak with and deal with until they reach the atomic bomb that they need."
Iran also wants the region to be destabilized "So everybody will come to Iran and speak with Iran and give Iran a type of attention."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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