The evolution of the security situation in the Middle East in 2025 is an evolution to a new reality where traditional terrorism has evolved into a more comprehensive type, where guerrilla warfare, and classic military action, are mixed with cyber attack. This is more than a tactical adaptation to conflict in that it is a strategic and conceptual re-shaping of the way non-state actors and their state patrons address conflict.
One of the most illustrative was on October 7, 2023, Hamas made a multi-faceted organized attack on Israel. What seemed at the beginning probably to be a salvo of rocket fire rapidly developed into a full-scale infiltration which meant wholesale grievous casualties and hostages among the civilians. The operation raised a question about the line between terrorism and invasion, which indicates a strategic change of direction with the application of hybrid warfare tactics.
Hybrid Warfare as a Defining Strategy
Combining Military and Non-Military Means
Hybrid warfare is a combination of regular and irregular arms and methods with cyber campaigns, propaganda, and silencing the society. Hamas and Hezbollah are dual-identity actors worshiping the altar of both politics and military forces and global powers as a tool of its foreign policy in the Middle East, such as Iran. Their ability to control large amounts of territory in conducting asymmetric attacks makes them hard to respond to using the traditional military forces.
Israel has since adjusted as well, and among the mechanisms it has been using to counter hybrid threats include airstrikes, cyber powers, and special operations. The aim is not only to counteract the infrastructure of militants but also digital and psychological tools to increase their effect.
The Cyberspace and Information Front
There is a mirror conflict in cyberspace. Over the past few years, cyberattacks on infrastructures, finance systems, and important data networks in the Middle East have been conducted by state-sponsored and proxy actors. Such operations are usually unclaimed, yet quite disruptive in nature- system gridlocked and the non-combatant population thrown into confusion.
At the same time, information warfare is redefining the collective understanding and reducing the credibility of institutions. The role of propaganda campaigns based on the products of AI, deepfake technology, and manipulated news head the list of relevant forces in contemporary hybrid warfare to the point where truth itself has been turned into a battlefield.
Regional Instability and Terrorism’s Expansion
Power Vacuums and the Geography of Terrorism
Years of the civil war in Syria and the political fragmented countries of Iraq and Lebanon have been favorable breeding grounds of the terror organizations. Although the territorial caliphate of ISIS is defeated, the ideology of ISIS still exists. Its fragments, which currently act as decentralized cells, have now assimilated by being embedded in unstable regions.
Other organizations like Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) still have a say in the northwest region of Syria. They use local grievances and act with some autonomy, sometimes coordinating with external players to achieve regional interests. Such groups are becoming interconnected to an extent that they are less likely to be broken down using traditional means of counter terrorism.
Geopolitical Rivalries and Proxy Conflicts
The Iran-Saudi Arabia (and even Israel proxy) conflict is the clear outline between the two nations. The network of militia and paramilitary groups in Iran extends to Yemen, Syria and Lebanon. These proxies are employed as force multipliers in projecting influence without getting involved in direct warfare by Tehran.
These feuds have perpetuated a spiral of aggravation, through which terrorism and precise killings together with drone attacks serve as a combination of strategic signalling and military activity. Within this atmosphere, terrorism is rendered into a statecraft as opposed to an ideological exercise.
Global Security Implications
Blurred Lines and Novel Threats
Terrorism hybridization makes the improvement of global security doctrines difficult. Policymakers are no longer able to count on a distinct division between peacetime and wartime or between criminal and military threats. The changing conflicts in the Middle East provide the prototype that might soon be experienced elsewhere by other countries- characterized by low-level conflict with occasional spectacular incidents featuring high casualties.
Governments are now being challenged to integrate their military, diplomatic, intelligence and cyber capabilities to enable proper response. The conventional projection of force can be weak as far as the opponent is flexible, deniable, and strategically ambiguous.
Radicalization and Recruitment in a Digital Era
Radicalization and recruitment are fastened by the digital environment. Extremist ideology is fed, in the form of an echo chamber, through social media networks, end-to-end messaging applications, and outlying online forums. The procedure to radicalization is quicker, more global and not easily spotted by the traditional surveillance operations.
However, those in war-torn areas such as Gaza, southern Lebanon, and even in Iraq still continue to languish as they are even more susceptible. Economic instability over a long period, violence exposure, and unavailability of education opportunities make the perfect environment to recruit. This is exploited in hybrid warfare tactics and in the process ideology is integrated with material rewards in an effort to recruit individuals.
The Gaza Conflict as a Hybrid Flashpoint
A case in point with terrorism and the hybrid war is the continuous conflict between Israel and Hamas. Since the 2023 escalation, Israel has ramped up its activities in Gaza not only targeting militants’ infrastructure, but also communication infrastructure, as well as digital propaganda networks.
In the meantime, Hamas is still developing its combat style, and nowadays drones, tunnels, and psychological operations have become part of its arsenal. Their improved capability to initiate cross-domain attacks is an indication of a greater degree of coordination, which in most cases is aided by other actors.
Hostages are used both as leverage and the instrument of non-military publicity, and the tendency portrays how hybrid actors militarize all aspects of human security in the best interest of their strategic purposes. The difference between humanitarian concerns and tools of bargaining in the geopolitical arena becomes more and more ambiguous as negotiations are going on internationally.
Perspectives from Analysts
Security expert Dan Burmawy addressed the complexity of this emerging paradigm in a recent interview with Al Jazeera. Reflecting on the ongoing evolution of terrorism in Gaza and beyond, he observed that
“hybrid warfare isn’t just a strategy—it’s a language. And we’re only just learning how to read it.”
Burmawy stressed the urgency for global counterterrorism frameworks to adapt.
“We’re now dealing with adversaries who operate across domains—physical, digital, and psychological—and we need to respond in kind. Cyber resilience, information control, and societal cohesion are no longer optional; they’re frontline tools in this fight.”
There are two lenses through which we can view the future of the Middle East.
— Dan Burmawi (@DanBurmawy) May 14, 2025
The first is optimistic: that the region is entering a new era of peace, where, with U.S. support, more nations will join the Abraham Accords, choosing economic growth and regional stability over…
His remarks reflect growing concern among analysts that hybrid warfare is quickly becoming the dominant form of asymmetric conflict worldwide. From the streets of Gaza to cyberspace, the definition of terrorism is expanding in real-time.
What This Means for the Future of Global Conflict
Terrorism hybrids in the Middle East are not exclusive to this region since they are indicators of a bigger change in the way conflicts are fought. There is a new strategic setting in the international community as state and non-state actors are becoming distinctively hard to differentiate in terms of tactics. Such an environment requires not just reactive action but proactive reconsideration of how to avoid conflict, build resiliency in the society, and keep it deterred in the multi-domain world.
Knowing about this evolution is more than an academic issue; it is the key issue that is a requirement of global stability. In future scenarios, where new conflicts are more likely to be shaped along the line of the already mentioned hybrid pattern, the power to predict and prepare can be actually the most significant resource of all.
