Baraa Shiban

As Lebanese authorities say at least 182 people have been killed and more than 170 wounded in Israeli airstrikes today, Shelagh Fogerty speaks to Baraa Shiban, RUSI’s Associate Fellow for Middle East Security.

Baraa Shiban, associate fellow with the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, told Metro.co.uk that Russia is only benefiting from the Iran-Israel conflict. He said: "Russia is trying to appeal to the wider Arab community, utilising the high number of civilian casualties in Gaza. We have seen this multiple times – they try to draw similarities between what they are facing, a hostile West, similar to what Israel and its allies are doing to the Palestinians."

“I don’t know if it’s about support for Hamas as much as it is whoever’s striking back,” Baraa Shiban, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute said, referring to Palestinians responding to Hamas as a resistance group rather than a political entity.