Israel has launched strikes on what it believed to be an Iranian military structure, located in Syria. The two countries have been at odds for years in shadow-proxy wars, the main one of those being the Syrian Civil War. Iran has supported the Syrian government and president Bashar al-Assad, while Israel has supported the United States backed rebels. The strikes have been the heaviest carried out by Syria in decades and has triggered a response from the Iranian government, who believes the Syrian government has a “right to defend itself.” The Israeli strikes followed 20 rockets that were fired at an Israeli military position in the Golan Heights area. Israel has blamed Iran for the attack, but Iran has neither confirmed or denied accountability.

The international community has been relatively silent on the matter, besides the United States, who has taken steps against Iran. President Donald Trump was already taking steps to back out of the Iran nuclear deal, an agreement that limited Iran’s creation of nuclear weapons. The deal was foraged during the Obama administration and the recent strikes in Syria have motivated the President the completely abandon the deal. There appears to be no end to the conflict in the Middle East, but many believe that it will only begin to escalate in coming years.