The Impact of the October 7 Attack Still Reverberates in the U.S.

Israel on Monday marked the first anniversary of Hamas’s massacre of 1,200 people on October 7, 2023, which launched the regional war that continues to rage in the Middle East. While Israel is bearing the brunt of the multi-front conflict, facing direct attacks from the regime in Tehran as well as from Iranian proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and the West Bank, the war has also had consequences for the United States.

Hamas killed 46 Americans on October 7 and took an additional 12 U.S. citizens hostage. Among the American hostages was 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents campaigned for his return for 11 months, meeting with world dignitaries and appearing at both the Republican and Democratic national conventions. Despite their efforts, Hamas executed Hersh in captivity in Gaza along with five other Israeli hostages. The Israeli military recovered their bodies shortly thereafter, on September 1, 2024. Today, seven American hostages remain in Gaza.

While the number of attacks on U.S. troops by Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria was already on the rise before October 7, 2023, the assaults spiked in the months following the Hamas atrocities. Between President Biden’s inauguration in January 2021 and March 2023, U.S. troops in Syria were attacked 78 times. In June 2023, The Washington Post reported that Tehran was equipping regional proxies with weapons “intended specifically to target U.S. military vehicles and kill U.S. personnel” as part of a broader strategy to eject America from the region. Since Hamas launched the war last year, Iran-backed terrorists have targeted U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan over 180 times, killing three U.S. service members in Jordan in January 2024. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq — the umbrella group for Iran-backed militias in Iraq that took responsibility for the murder of the three U.S. service members — claims to have attacked Israel over 115 times since October 7, 2023.

Iran and its regional proxies have threatened not only the physical safety of Americans but also their prosperity. According to the U.S. Navy, between 2021 and July 5, 2023, Iran has “harassed, attacked or seized nearly 20 internationally flagged merchant vessels.” Since the war between Israel and Hamas began, the regime in Tehran has largely outsourced the harassment of shipping in the Red Sea to its Yemen-based proxy: the Houthis.

In April, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reported that the Houthis have attacked 26 ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November 2023. The Red Sea is a major international shipping artery, with 10-15 percent of international maritime trade and 30 percent of global container shipping passing through. According to the DIA report, shipping in the Red Sea was down 90 percent between December 2023 and February 2024, constituting a major blow since alternate shipping routes around the Horn of Africa add about 11,000 nautical miles,1-2 weeks of transit time, and approximately $1 million in fuel costs for each voyage. The crisis could exacerbate other stresses on shipping and ultimately lead to inflation and increased consumer prices in the United States.

Israel has absorbed two direct assaults from Iran — one in April and one earlier this month — and over 20,000 rockets and missiles from Iranian proxies across the region. The trend of Iran-backed militias killing and terrorizing U.S. and Israeli citizens long predates October 7, 2023. Nevertheless, the Hamas attack — funded and supported by Tehran — has brought Iran’s dangerous behavior into sharp relief. Washington should continue to support Israel as it faces off against shared adversaries in the region and back Israel as it eyes a significant attack that will weaken the Islamic Republic and potentially curb its malign activity in the region.

Enia Krivine is the senior director of the Israel Program and the National Security Network at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). For more analysis from Enia and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Enia on X at @EKrivine. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.