"Axis of Resistance": Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis

We look at how Israel's war on Gaza has inflamed tensions in the Middle East and threatens to pull other countries into the fighting, including the United States.

The Pentagon says it has intercepted a number of drones and missiles launched by Yemen's Houthi forces — known as Ansar Allah — in the Red Sea aimed at disrupting international shipping, with the group vowing to continue the attacks on ships in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The U.S. and Israel have also exchanged fire with groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria, and violence continues to increase in the occupied West Bank.

The growth of forces openly fighting against Israel and the U.S. is a major development in the Middle East that most Western commentators do not fully understand, says Rami Khouri, a veteran Palestinian American journalist and a senior public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut.

This "axis of resistance" is largely motivated by outrage over the treatment of Palestinians, he says.

"The U.S. and Israel at some point need to acknowledge that the Palestinian people have rights that are equal to the Israeli people."