What's next after Iran attack on Israel? Local experts weigh in

Iran’s missile strike into Israel on Tuesday could be the harbinger of a long, drawn-out conflict.

Local experts weighed in on the situation, with some saying it will likely get worse before it gets better.

David Ramadan is a former Republican member of Virginia's House of Delegates and an adjunct professor at George Mason University, where he teaches global affairs.

He says with Iran's proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, weakened, there’s a change of balance in that region.

“Now due to the lack of deterrence, the expectation is that Israel will hit and hit hard in Iran, likely against the nuclear reactors,” he said.

Whether that’s the endgame or not, the past few weeks have seen an escalation in the region beyond Gaza.

Israeli missiles launched into southern Lebanon. Then, an Israeli ground incursion began just hours before the Iranian missiles. More than a million Lebanese have been displaced.

“Two-hundred, 250,000 of those are on the streets with nowhere to go,” Ramadan said.

Ramadan was born in Lebanon and left in his teens.

“Pictures from Beirut of people sleeping on the streets bring a lot of memories, and unfortunately the world will have to deal with that,” he said.

“As we’ve seen in Gaza, there's no place that is safe from Israeli air strikes,” Khaled Elgindy, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said. “And it’s important to point out also that [60,000] to 70,000 Israelis have also had to evacuate their homes over the past year.”

The pain, the human toll, knows no boundaries or borders.

“So clearly this war, the continuation and escalation of this war is not in anybody’s interest,” Elgindy said. “Certainly not in the interests of Palestinians or Lebanese but it’s also not in the interest of Israelis.”

One of the few things all parties agree on is that there will be more pain before peace.

“The one thing we do know is that the Middle East with a dismantled Hezbollah, a dismantled Hamas and perhaps even a dismantled Iran would usher in incredible opportunities for peace,” said Ron Halber with the Jewish Community Relations Council. “Israel will have to make steps toward Palestinian autonomy or a state in order to realize that goal, which may be hard to picture with this current government.”

This latest escalation comes just days before Israel marks one year since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.