The world has entered the "zodiac" of war

The world map is filled with red dots, marking places where armed conflicts of various sizes are taking place. In addition to these, there are also "orange' zones where tensions are escalating, and direct confrontation seems imminent. From Ukraine to Gaza, from Pakistan to Taiwan, weapons speak, and dialogue seems impossible. A simple glance at the daily news presents a nightmarish picture. It's practically challenging to keep up with the information flow; every moment reveals a new location where gunfire has erupted.

• American Strikes in Yemen

The U.S. military has announced that it targeted 14 Houthi missiles on the ground in Yemen to "protect" maritime transport in the region, the fourth wave of Western attacks against these pro-Iran rebels in a week. "These missiles on launch ramps posed an immediate threat to commercial ships and U.S. Navy vessels in the region and could have been launched at any time," wrote the U.S. Central Command in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter). These American attacks, in a Middle East nearing a regional conflagration, occurred just hours after Washington once again designated Yemeni rebels as a "terrorist" entity, as they continued to attack commercial ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. According to the Houthi channel al-Masirah, the overnight strikes targeted "the governorates of Hodeidah, Taiz, Dhamar, Al-Bayda, and Saada." Hani Kayed, a 44-year-old resident of Hodeidah, told AFP that he heard the sound of an explosion "around local time 02:16," coming from the east of the city, near the airport. "We will continue our activities to protect the lives of innocent sailors," added Centcom Commander Michael Erik Kurilla, quoted in the statement. Meanwhile, a Houthi official told al-Masirah that their group would "continue to target ships heading to the ports of occupied Palestine, regardless of American-British aggression trying to stop us." Off the coast of Yemen, in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, these rebels, engaged in a nearly decade-long war with the Yemeni government, target commercial ships they believe are linked to Israel. They claim to do so in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, which has been bombarded and besieged by the Israeli army since Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7. The recent intensification of Houthi attacks prompted American and British responses; a third wave hit four ground missiles on Tuesday. Last month, the U.S. established a multinational naval force to protect maritime transport in the Red Sea, a vital transit route representing up to 12% of global trade. U.S. forces have repeatedly intercepted rockets and drones fired from Yemen, where rebels control a large part of the territory.

• Open Conflict Pakistan - Iran

The Pakistani army carried out attacks targeting rebel groups in Iran overnight, a source from Pakistani intelligence said after an Iranian attack on its territory killed two children. "I can only confirm that we carried out attacks against anti-Pakistani armed groups targeted in Iran," said the source, who was not authorized to speak officially, adding that a government statement would follow. Journalist Salman Masood, covering Pakistan for The New York Times since 2021, reports on X (formerly Twitter) that the Pakistani air force conducted airstrikes during the night on Baluch separatist camps in Iran. According to the report, at least seven camps, located 40 to 50 kilometers inside Iranian territory, were targeted. These strikes come less than 24 hours after Iran used "rockets and drones" to hit two bases of the central headquarters of the Jaish al-Adl (Justice Army in Arabic) group in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan. Iran and Pakistan frequently accuse each other of allowing rebel groups to operate from each other's territory to launch attacks, but official forces are rarely involved. Pakistan strongly condemned an Iranian airstrike within its borders that killed two children, calling it an "unprovoked violation of its airspace" and warning of serious consequences, according to CNN. Iran stated that it used "precision rockets and drone attacks" to destroy two strongholds of the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl, known in Iran as Jaish al-Dhulm, in the Kouh-Sabz (Green Mountain) area of southwestern Pakistan, according to the Iranian state-aligned Tasnim news agency. The attack comes after Iran launched rockets into northern Iraq and Syria on Monday, the latest escalation in hostilities in the Middle East, where Israel's current war in Gaza risks turning into a broader regional conflict. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said the attack on its territory killed "two innocent children and injured three girls" and warned Iran of "serious consequences." It described the airstrike as an "unprovoked violation of its airspace by Iran... inside Pakistani territory." "It is even more concerning that this illegal act took place despite the existence of multiple communication channels between Pakistan and Iran," the ministry said. Following the attack, nuclear-armed Pakistan lodged a "strong protest" with a senior official from the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran and appealed to the Iranian charge d'affaires, stating that the "responsibility for consequences will be solely Iran's." Jaish al-Adl militants declared late Tuesday that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards had used six attack drones and several rockets to destroy two houses where their fighters' children and wives lived. In a statement on Telegram, the militants said two small children were killed in the attack, while two women and a teenager were seriously injured. Last month, Iran accused Jaish al-Adl militants of attacking a police station in the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan, resulting in the deaths of 11 Iranian police officers, according to Tasnim. Jaish al-Adl, or the Army of Justice, is a separatist militant group operating on both sides of the border and has previously claimed responsibility for attacks on Iranian targets. Its stated goal is the independence of the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan. The strikes in Pakistan come a day after the Iranian Revolutionary Guards launched ballistic missiles, targeting what it claimed was a Mossad intelligence agency spy base in Erbil, northern Iraq, and "anti-Iranian terrorist groups" in Syria.

• Chinese Planes in Taiwan

Taiwan's Ministry of Defense has reported that several Chinese military aircraft crossed the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, according to Reuters. The ministry reported a resumption of Chinese military activity in the strait, with Chinese aircraft and warships conducting "joint combat readiness patrols." Of these, "11 aircraft crossed the median line - an unofficial demarcation between China and Taiwan that the former does not recognize - and entered the southwest and north (Adiz) air defense identification zone," the source said. This is the most significant show of force by Beijing around the island since the presidential elections in Taiwan. Taiwanese voters elected Lai Ching-te, of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), as president of the archipelago, who promised to protect the territory from Beijing's "threats and intimidations." In the last four years, China has increased its military activity around Taiwan, and Chinese fighter jets and warships now regularly operate in the strait. China, which considers Taiwan an integral part of its territory, has vowed to bring the island back into its fold one day, using force if necessary.

• Gaza, Humanitarian Disaster

In Gaza, the situation remains tense. A coordinator for the World Health Organization's emergency aid described patients "waiting for death" in Gaza hospitals, which have become non-functional due to the war, in a statement made at the UN headquarters in New York. After spending five weeks in Palestinian territory, Sean Casey, the coordinator of the WHO emergency team, described seeing patients in hospitals "suffering from severe burns or open fractures, waiting for hours or days" to be treated. "They often asked me for food or water, illustrating the level of despair," he added. Sean Casey said he managed to visit only six of the 16 functional hospitals in Gaza, out of the 36 that were operating before the war. "What I personally saw was a rapid deterioration of the health system," he said, also noting "the decline in the level of humanitarian access, especially in the northern areas of the Strip." "We tried every day for seven days to deliver fuel and supplies to the northern part of Gaza City," the official described. "Every day, we were denied these requests." Gaza hospitals receive a massive influx of patients but can rely only on a reduced staff, as caregivers have been displaced after leaving their homes, like most of the population. Casey said he saw patients in northern Gaza "waiting to die in a hospital without fuel, electricity, or water." The war, which devastated Palestinian territory and displaced over 80% of the population, was triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7 in southern Israel, which resulted in 1,140 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. In retaliation, Israel pledged to eliminate Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007. According to the Hamas Health Ministry, 24,448 people, mostly women, children, and teenagers, have been killed in Israeli military operations in Palestinian territory, where the UN has warned of a "risk of famine" and "deadly epidemics."

• Zelensky Wants a New Strategy in the War with Russia

The end of the war in Ukraine is not visible, and peace efforts do not seem too substantial. President Volodymyr Zelensky, freshly returned from Davos, suggested a new strategy in the war with Russia: Ukraine should not only limit itself to defense but should launch attacks against Russia and take the initiative in this regard, demanded the leader in Kiev. He said, in his usual evening video address to compatriots, that he had a meeting during the day with the key figures determining the fate of the war with Russia. "There was a strategic level of discussion - our actions this year. And not just defensive ones. Ukraine needs an ambitious, active perspective. We want our country to have initiative, not the enemy. We need to make sure that the end of the war depends on our actions. The world supports those who have a perspective. And this is a fundamental task - to keep the initiative so that we become stronger," said Volodymyr Zelensky, seeming to suggest that Kiev will initiate new offensive operations, most likely targeting strategic objectives in Russian territory. He said he had a separate meeting with the defense minister, and the topic was a new mobilization of reservists. "We are preparing more forces for our country," announced Zelensky.

• Jordan - bombings in Syria

Airstrikes, suspected to have been carried out by Jordan on southern Syria, killed 10 people, including children, on Thursday morning, according to local Syrian media and those monitoring the conflict in the region, but so far there has been no comment from the authorities in Amman. Reuters reports. The local publication Sham F.M. reported that Jordanian airstrikes hit two houses in the town of Arman in the southern province of Suwayda, causing deaths. Suwayda24, a Syrian news portal monitoring developments in the province, said simultaneous airstrikes overnight hit a residential neighborhood in Arman, in the province's southeast, near the border with Jordan. The source stated that the strikes killed 10 civilians - two children, five women and three men - but did not identify the strikes as Jordanian.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring center that tracks the war in Syria, said at least nine people were killed in the Jordanian strikes on Suwayda, including two children. The Jordanian military has stepped up its campaign against drug traffickers in recent weeks, following clashes last month with dozens of people suspected of links to pro-Iranian militias who were transporting large quantities of narcotics across the Syrian-Jordanian border, along with weapons and explosives. . Jordan and its Western allies have blamed the wave of smuggling on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanon-based Shiite movement, and other pro-Iranian groups that control much of southern Syria.

• Bosnia, Preventive Flyovers

Last week, two F-16 fighter planes flew over Bosnia to emphasize the U.S. support for the territorial integrity of this country and to discourage the "secessionist activity" of Serbs, which contradicts the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreements, announced the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo. The embassy's statement refers to the separatist efforts of Milorad Dodik, the pro-Russian nationalist leader of the Serb region in Bosnia, Republika Srpska, who has long been calling for its separation from Bosnia and Herzegovina and joining his neighboring ally, Serbia. The flyover mentioned by the embassy is part of bilateral air-ground exercises conducted together with the national armed forces of Bosnia in areas in the northern Balkan country not controlled by Serbs, the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo said in a statement. "This bilateral training is an example of advanced military cooperation contributing to peace and security in the Western Balkans and also demonstrates the United States' commitment to ensuring the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the face of anti-Dayton and secessionist activities," the statement said. Washington mediated the Dayton Agreement, which ended the war in Bosnia from 1992-1995, during which approximately 100,000 people were killed, while two million people were displaced. The treaty divided Bosnia into the Republika Srpska (RS) and a Federation shared between Croats and Bosniaks, with a relatively weak central government.

• Freezing in the Korean Zone

North Korea officially dismantles several key government agencies responsible for promoting cooperation and reunification with the South, announced the state media. The decision was announced by the North Korean parliament, the Central Korean News Agency (KCNA) said, and came just weeks after leader Kim Jong Un declared that continuing to seek reconciliation with South Korea is a "mistake," according to AFP. Inter-Korean relations have suddenly deteriorated this year, with Pyongyang's launch of a spy satellite prompting Seoul to partially suspend a 2018 military agreement aimed at defusing tensions. Labeling South Korea as the "main enemy," Kim recently stated that efforts at reconciliation and reunification with the North are "a mistake that should not be made again." In their constitutions, both North Korea and South Korea claim sovereignty over the entire peninsula. To date, diplomatic relations have been managed by South Korea's Ministry of Unification and the Committee for Peaceful Reunification in Pyongyang - one of the agencies that the Supreme People's Assembly has now declared abolished.

This roughly outlines the current picture of the world, painted with a lot of blood.