On the ground in Tel Aviv awaiting Iran's revenge attack as Gaza horror rages on

Chris Hughes reports from Israel where everyone is waiting to see what Iran will do next

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Chris Hughes in Tel Aviv

I have just touched down in Tel Aviv for my latest assignment reporting on fighting in the region, sparked by the now ten month-long war in Gaza.

As I write this, Israelis are bracing for an Iran revenge attack following a suspected Mossad assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh last month.

The biggest fear is that a new Iranian attack on Israel will spark all-out war, either from Hezbollah or Iran - or both - and spread into other parts of the region.

Even now, western leaders are imploring both sides to come to the negotiating table in Doha, to settle on a peace plan to release more than 100 hostages in Gaza and stop the killing. 

They hope that an end to hostilities in Gaza will end the soaring tension in the wider region.

But the Haniyeh hit and the Israeli ‘dead man walking’ manhunt for his successor Yahya Sinwar, will not help - likewise the cross-border artillery between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah.

Even though peace in the region depends on a Gaza ceasefire, the momentum of killings elsewhere in the region mean war with Hezbollah, or even Iran may be too strong.

What has happened inside Gaza is undoubtedly horrific, with some 40,000 dead, many of them women and children and entire communities turned to rubble.

Now there is a fear of diseases like polio and water-borne killers entering the system, with children covered in sores from the filth of being forced to survive on scraps.