By Sara Harmouch, American University and Nakissa Jahanbani, United States Military Academy West Point

From attacks by rebels in the Red Sea to raids in northern Israel and the Oct. 7, 2023, assault by Hamas, Western analysts have pointed a finger of blame toward Iran.

Iran's strikes this week in Pakistan, Iraq and Syria have brought back into the spotlight its ballistic missile program, which has ground forward over the past 40 years despite sanctions.

On Tuesday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hit what it called "a spy headquarters" in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region and "terrorist" targets in Syria.

This week's airstrikes between Iran and Pakistan that killed at least 11 people mark a significant escalation in fraught relations between the neighbors.

Long-running, low-level insurgencies on either side of the border have frustrated both countries, and the apparent targets of the strikes — Iran's on Tuesday and Pakistan's response on Thursday — were insurgent groups whose goal is an independent Baluchistan for ethnic Baluch areas in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Iran's airstrike targeting an alleged outlawed separatist group in the Pakistani border province of Baluchistan has jeopardized relations between the two neighbors and potentially raised tensions in a region already roiled by Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The South Asian country recalled its ambassador to Iran on Wednesday in protest of the unprecedented attack, though both sides appeared wary of provoking the other. A military response from cash-strapped Pakistan is unlikely because the country's missile systems are primarily deployed along the eastern border to respond to potential threats from India.

Fighting "human animals." Making Gaza a "slaughterhouse." "Erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth."

Such inflammatory rhetoric is a key component of South Africa's case accusing Israel of genocide at the U.N. world court, a charge Israel denies. South Africa says the language — in comments by Israeli leaders, soldiers and entertainers about Palestinians in Gaza since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack sparked war — is proof of Israel's intent to commit genocide.

Over the past three months, on banners and T-shirts and balloons and social media posts, one piece of imagery has emerged around the world in protests against the Israel-Hamas war: the watermelon.

The colors of sliced watermelon — with red pulp, green-white rind and black seeds — are the same as those on the Palestinian flag. From New York and Tel Aviv to Dubai and Belgrade, the fruit has become a symbol of solidarity, drawing together activists who don't speak the same language or belong to the same culture but share a common cause.

A barrage of U.S., coalition and militant attacks in the Middle East over the last five days are compounding U.S. fears that Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza could expand, as massive military strikes failed to stall the assault on Red Sea shipping by Yemen-based Houthis.

Even as the U.S. and allies pummeled more than two dozen Iran-backed Houthi locations on Friday in retaliation for attacks on ships, the Houthis have continued their maritime assaults. And Tehran struck sites in Iraq and Syria, claiming to target an Israeli "spy headquarters," then followed that Tuesday with reported missile and drone attacks in Pakistan.

Now 100 days old, the latest Israel-Hamas war is by far the longest, bloodiest, and most destructive conflict between the bitter enemies.

The fighting erupted on Oct. 7 when Hamas carried out a deadly attack in southern Israel. Since then, Israel has relentlessly pounded the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and a ground offensive that have wrought unprecedented destruction, flattening entire neighborhoods. The offensive has displaced the vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza, shuttered operations in more than half of Gaza's hospitals and caused widespread hunger, U.N. monitors say.

South Africa says more than 50 countries have expressed support for its case at the United Nations' top court accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in the war in Gaza.

Others, including the United States, have strongly rejected South Africa's allegation that Israel is violating the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Many more have remained silent.

A spate of attacks by Yemeni rebels on Red Sea shipping has disrupted the vital trade route, but experts say stopping them appears difficult at best -- and risky at worst.

Dozens of drone and missile attacks have been launched on ships by the Huthis, part of the Iran-backed "axis of resistance" reinvigorated by Israel's war on Hamas.