The Wall Street Journal said that the aerial bombardment launched by American forces on the sites of pro-Iranian armed groups in the Middle East may be less effective in calming tensions in the region than an agreement that stops the fighting between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

According to the newspaper’s report, the American retaliatory strikes in response to the killing of 3 American soldiers at a military base in northeastern Jordan were carefully planned to ward off attacks on American forces in the Middle East without pushing Iran into a direct conflict.

Whatever the reaction the bombing provokes, it is unlikely to prevent Iran's allies from launching further attacks against American and Israeli interests. However, analysts and officials in the region that the newspaper spoke to believe that stopping these attacks requires a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

On Friday, American forces launched strikes on sites they said were belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the Quds Force in Syria and Iraq, in response to the killing of the three soldiers, amid warnings of dragging the region into war.

The US Central Command announced that the strikes were carried out by aircraft launched from the United States, including long-range bombers, noting that more than 125 precision-guided missiles were used.

It added that the targeted facilities are command, control and espionage centers and storage sites for missiles and drones.

American forces in Iraq and Syria have been subjected to more than 160 attacks since the start of the war in Gaza, which represents a sharp escalation in a slowly worsening conflict in which the militants aim to expel the United States from the region, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The American newspaper attributes the reason for igniting the fiery conflict between the United States and the "constellation of militias allied with Iran" to the war that Israel began in the Gaza Strip following the attack by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which came in response to the ongoing Israeli violations of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the ongoing incursions into West Bank cities and towns.

Since Israel's invasion of Gaza, Lebanese Hezbollah has also engaged in an exchange of fire on Israel's northern border. The attacks launched by the Iranian-backed Houthis have severely affected international shipping traffic in the Red Sea, which prompted the United States to launch air strikes on the territory controlled by the group in Yemen.

The two groups - Hezbollah and the Houthis - announced that they would not stop the fighting until Israel stopped its aggression against the Gaza Strip.

The newspaper pointed out that the war in Gaza, which claimed the lives of 27,000 people - most of them women and children - put the administration of US President Joe Biden under greater pressure to achieve its dual political goal, which is that a ceasefire in Gaza would lead to the release of Israelis detained by Hamas.

The United States is pushing a proposal that would initially stop the war for 6 weeks to allow the hostages out and pave the way for a more sustainable peace.

However, the newspaper says that there are major obstacles preventing the two sides from being convinced to agree to the deal, especially internal divisions over accepting its terms as they are.