Just as the "wave of reconciliation" emerged in the Middle East, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and CNN, three US media, quoted sources as breaking the news that William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), suddenly visited Saudi Arabia earlier this week.
Burns told Saudi Arabia that the United States was "caught off guard and disappointed" that Saudi Arabia had reconciled with Iran and Syria under China's mediation.
According to CCTV news client on April 8, citing a number of US media local time on April 8, Timothy Hawkins, spokesman for the US Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, said on the same day that the US Navy has deployed a nuclear submarine capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles to the Middle East to support the US Navy's Fifth Fleet. Hawkins said that the nuclear submarine had passed through the Suez Canal on the 7th.
Just as senior US officials paid a surprise visit to Saudi Arabia, Palestinian-Israeli tensions reappeared to escalate. Israel, the hardcore brother of the United States in the Middle East, is caught in a scuffle with armed groups in Palestine and Lebanon.
On April 7, in just 12 hours, two attacks occurred in the West Bank and Tel Aviv. According to Reuters on April 8, on the evening of April 7, local time, a driving collision occurred in Tel Aviv, Israel, killing one person and injuring seven others. The perpetrator was shot dead by the police.
Israeli security sources confirmed that the person who hit the person by the car was an Israeli Arab from the village of Gassim.
Videos posted on Israeli social media showed a white car speeding along the Corniche and overturned after rushing into the sidewalk, where gunshots were heard at the scene.
After the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "ordered the police to mobilize all border police reserves, and ordered the army to mobilize reserve forces in response to possible terrorist attacks."
Israel's announcement of the mobilization of reservists is a very dangerous signal that Israel is mobilizing more forces and that the situation is escalating or potentially spiralling out of control.
According to the Palestinian Ma'an News Agency, earlier in the day, a number of Palestinians shot at a car carrying three Israelis at a crossing in the Jordan Valley on the morning of the 7th, and a pair of sisters with dual Israeli and British citizenship were shot dead.
The Israeli government press office later issued a statement saying that all necessary forces would be mobilized to capture the attackers and that security deployments would be strengthened in the West Bank and all major Israeli roads.
According to The New York Times, the Israeli government said it treated the shooting as a "terrorist" attack, suggesting that Palestinians should be suspected.
Hamas described the shooting as a response to Israeli attacks on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, but the group did not claim responsibility.
In recent days, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has escalated sharply. In the early morning and late night of the 5th, Israeli police clashed with Palestinian people twice at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem, causing dozens of injuries. A number of neighboring countries and the League of Arab States immediately condemned this.
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, holy to both Judaism and Islam, has been the focus of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Currently, Jews and other non-Muslims are allowed to enter the compound, but not to worship.
In 2000, former Israeli Prime Minister Marid Sharon forcibly ascended the Al-Aqsa Mosque Square, triggering a second Palestinian intifada and years of bloodshed.
On the 6th, 34 rockets were fired from Lebanese territory into northern Israel, 25 of which were intercepted and 5 landed, causing injuries to civilians and damage to many buildings.
CNN said it was the largest rocket attack from Lebanon since the 2006 war in Lebanon.
So far, no organization has claimed responsibility for the rocket attack. The Israeli army assessed that the attack was carried out by armed factions affiliated with Hamas in Lebanon.
Israel was quick to retaliate. In the early morning of the 7th, the Israeli army launched air strikes on southern Lebanon, saying that the target was the stronghold of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
This is the first confirmed Israeli attack on Lebanese territory since April 2022 and the worst conflict between the two sides since the 2006 Lebanon war, raising international concerns.
The Israeli army also attacked Hamas military targets in the Gaza Strip from the night of the 6th to the early morning of the 7th, saying that the armed forces in the Gaza Strip fired about 40 rockets into Israel.
Israel said the military dispatched fighter jets that hit Hamas tunnels and weapons manufacturing facilities. A huge explosion was heard in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said it would not allow Hamas to operate inside Lebanon and that "the Lebanese government is responsible for every directional fire fired from its territory."
In response to the air strike carried out by the Israeli side on the 7th, Lebanon said that it would submit a formal complaint to the United Nations Security Council, saying that the Israeli attack was a "flagrant violation of Lebanese sovereignty."
Lebanon's defense minister said on the 7th that the Lebanese army is ready to resist any aggression against the country. Hamas also issued statements on the 7th condemning Israel's attacks on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said the developments of the past day were dangerous and could lead to a serious escalation.
In response, Iran and Qatar on 7 April called on the international community to condemn the IDF air strikes on the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.
On the morning of the 7th, the Israel Defense Forces announced the lifting of restrictions that had previously required residents of Israeli towns on the Gaza border to stay near protected areas. This was interpreted by local media as a signal that tensions could cool.
The latest news, according to the Israel Defense Forces, on the evening of the 8th local time, armed groups in Syria fired 3 rockets at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. One of them fell into the open area of the Golan Heights and the other two in Syria. There were no casualties in the attack.
Some analysts say Israel's latest airstrikes could push the confrontation to a dangerous new phase after violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, leading to broader clashes between Israel and the Palestinians and their allies on multiple fronts.
The ongoing violence further complicates the already volatile security situation in the Middle East. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is an old topic, but this time coincides with the overlapping period of the two major religious holidays, and the two sides do not give in to each other, which further complicates the issue.
At present, opposition to judicial reform is on the rise, and Netanyahu's government is in a hurry, or it is using the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to divert domestic contradictions, at least objectively it will achieve this effect.
In addition, Israel has shown a sense of anxiety about the reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Middle East and Syria's return to the Arab family, so it has taken many countermeasures.
It is worth noting that Israel is also attracting new allies in the Middle East and West Asia - Azerbaijan has established an embassy in Israel 31 years after the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel.
Israel established diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan in 1992 and opened an embassy in Baku the following year. Due to a number of factors, Azerbaijan has not opened an embassy in Israel for a long time.
For the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli situation, as one of Israel's staunchest allies, the United States is obviously on Israel's side. U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedante Patel said at a briefing on the 6th: "We condemn the firing of rockets from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip into Israel. Our commitment to Israel's security is unbreakable, and we recognize Israel's legitimate right to defend itself against all forms of attack. ”
This remark by the US side is obviously not to cool the situation, but to support Israel's retaliatory actions and increase regional tensions.
Unexpectedly, Israel is still fighting in the chaos, and the Middle East is fighting again. According to a report by CCTV news client on April 8, local time on April 8, the Iraqi presidential palace issued a statement condemning the drone attack at Sulaymaniyah International Airport on the 7th.
The statement said that Turkey has repeatedly conducted military operations in the Kurdish region of Iraq, and the attack on civilian facilities such as Sulaymaniyah International Airport is a "violation of Iraq's national sovereignty", and called on the Turkish government to take responsibility for the attack and officially apologize.
On April 7, local time, an explosion occurred near Sulaymaniyah International Airport in Iraq, which caused no casualties but caused a fire. Local Iraqi media said the attacking party was a Turkish drone.
Earlier, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Bilgić said on April 5 local time that since April 3, Turkey has banned all flights to and from Iraq's Sulaymaniyah International Airport from entering its airspace.
Birgić said Turkey's move was due to security concerns because the PKK's "terrorist activities" in the region had intensified. The first phase of the decision will be valid until July 3, 2023. The Turkish side will pay close attention to the development of the situation and will review it again according to the situation before this date.
Sulaymaniyah Governorate is located in northeastern Iraq. Founded in 1979, the PKK has sought to establish an independent state by force in Kurdish-populated areas on Turkey's borders with Iraq, Iran and Syria, and is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Turkey has been fighting PKK forces on the Turkish-Iraqi and Turkish-Syrian borders for many years.
The situation in the Middle East is once again critical, which will inevitably affect the stability of oil supply in the Middle East, as well as the promotion of petroyuan in a more peaceful and stable Saudi Arabia and Iran, and the construction of a large Middle East market dominated by Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the GCC.
It is worth noting that the United States has always been the main controller of Middle East geopolitics, and Israel is its most important agent. However, the United States has become the world's largest oil producer because shale oil has greatly reduced its dependence on Middle Eastern crude oil.
In addition, after the United States withdrew from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Middle East's trust in the United States has also been reduced. However, the United States will not be willing to become an outsider in the Middle East, and will inevitably unite with Israel and other countries to muddy the waters of the Middle East in order to profit from it.
However, if the Arabs can unite externally, even with the support of the United States, Israel may not be able to turn the waves.
All in all, security issues in the Middle East are interrelated, and if the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Iraqi-Turkish conflict are not resolved well, it is likely to affect the "tide of reconciliation" in the Middle East, and even the "tide of conflict". All parties need to meet each other halfway and provide positive energy for peace and security in the Middle East, rather than adding fuel to the fire.