While Israel has more than adequate capacity to battle Hamas, the wild card is Hezbollah, who is armed to the teeth with missiles, by some estimations, up to 130,000! Most of these missiles are capable of reaching deep inside Israel, so this is indeed an existential threat. The sheer number of missiles would overwhelm Israel’s missile defence shield. And, a retaliation against Damascus would draw Syria into the war. With Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria in the war, Iran is likely to join as well. The US would probably have actively entered the war around the time of a possible Hezbollah attack, and Hezbollah has already threatened terrorist attacks against the US for involvement. The IDF alleges that the Syrian Arab Army has fired mortar shells into Israel’s Golan Heights. Israel returned fire.
