Israel Update 12.3.26

Covering the entirety of the current war in the Middle East is beyond the scope of this update.

The Update focusses mainly on events in Israel, hugely under-reported outside the country,  followed by links to relevant comment & opinion pieces.

ATTACKS ON ISRAEL’S CIVILIANS

 

Few outside Israel have any idea of the intensity of current Iranian and Hezbollah attacks on civilian population centres with multiple missile and drone salvos day and night.  Since the war began, the IDF has identified more than 250 missile launches from Iran and more than 450 from Lebanon. More than 150 drones have been launched from Iran and over 50 from Lebanon.

 Among the attacks:

Two construction workers from Petah Tikva were killed Monday when an Iranian missile struck a building site in Yehud. Another man was seriously wounded and five others injured.

Cluster munitions were used and at least six sites were hit in this, the sixth salvo of the day targeting Israel. Reports herehere& here

 

In attacks co-ordinated with Iran, Lebanese terror group Hezbollah blasted over 200 rockets and drones at northern Israel for hours overnight Wednesday/Thursday, (last night) repeatedly sending hundreds of thousands of Israelis to shelters.

An opening salvo of 100 rockets was launched around 8 p.m. just as a missile from Iran targeted central Israel. More Iranian missiles targeted the north and south.

The Iranian missiles were successfully intercepted, but several impacts from Hezbollah attacks were reported, causing fires.

 One rocket scored a direct hit on a house in the Galilee town of Bi’ina, injuring two.  Dozens of rockets were fired toward the Haifa Bay area.

Not all of the Hezbollah rockets crossed the border into Israel. Reports here& here

 

The previous night 10/11 March in Israel’s North:

 

Iranian missiles:

19:50 pm, 23:36 pm, 00:55 am, 1.08 am, 3:47 am, 4:38 am

Hezbollah fired rockets and sent attack drones:

20:07pm, 21:06 pm, 21:15pm, 1:37am, 4:19 am, 5.00-8.00 am.

(Source:PRS)

 

As at 10 March, 2,339 injured people, both civilians and soldiers, have been admitted to hospitals since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran on Feb. 28 with injuries ranging from shrapnel wounds to anxiety-related injuries. Several injuries and at least one death have been attributed to cardiac arrests or falls while individuals were rushing to bomb shelters.Report here

 

According to fresh IDF assessments, around 50% of Iran’s ballistic missiles fired at Israel have been armed with cluster bomb warheads which indiscriminately spread dozens of submunitions, each with several kg of explosives, over a radius of around 10 km (6 miles) which have increased the injury toll. Iran has targeted civilian centres as well as military facilities. Report here

 

As at March 10, there have been 9,115 reported claims for missile damage. Tel Aviv, where 4,609 claims have been filed, has been the most affected area.Report here

EVACUEES

Approximately 300 evacuees from Beit Shemesh are currently sheltering at the Leonardo Plaza Hotel Jerusalem.

Following the devastating Iranian ballistic missile strike on March 1, which killed nine people and destroyed a synagogue and surrounding residential area, these families have been left homeless and traumatized. One evacuee Mor Buzaglo recounted the “miracle” of surviving after the ceiling collapsed on her and her daughter. Social workers at the hotel report high levels of anxiety attacks and emotional distress. Report here

 

IRAN WAR

 

After less than two weeks of fighting, Iran has lost roughly two‑thirds of its ballistic missile launchers, according to a new Israeli military assessment…According to IDF data, Iran still possesses roughly 1,500 ballistic missiles of various ranges. Report here

 

“The chances of regime change at the moment are not high, but it is not over,” an Israeli official has said. Nevertheless, Iran had suffered a severe strategic blow. “Their system is in ashes. They have no navy. They have no air force. They have no defence industries. We severely damaged the infrastructure…Do not underestimate the strategic damage.”
“From their perspective, if the regime does not fall, they have won,” the official said. “But we have pushed them back years…”Report here

 

A senior IDF General Staff officer has said, “It is impossible to miss this opportunity. We must not take our foot off the gas until this regime collapses – neither we nor the United States. This is an opportunity we will not get again.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said Sunday, “Israel has been in a state of ongoing emergency for two years. What we need now above all is persistence and patience. It will take more time – however long it takes, it will take. This is the war of our generation, and it will determine our future and our security here for many years to come.”
Israel Air Force officials said. “If we stop now, they will rebuild the missile array,” one official said. “China and North Korea will help them, and we will find ourselves facing the same problem again in a short time.” Report here

 

Three leaders from Gulf states have separately delivered clear messages to the U.S.: any scenario for ending the war must ensure the elimination of the Iranian threat against them. A Gulf Arab diplomat reportedly said “Why would the GCC states (the Gulf Cooperation Council) want the war to end before defeating a regime that, at its first opportunity, fired hundreds of missiles at them indiscriminately?”
“Why should we leave that risk hanging over us and over our most important economic interests, when it is clear that the missiles and drones will be directed at us in the next confrontation as well?”  Report here

 

 

The UAE, Azerbaijan and Cyprus, all recently attacked by Iran, are equipped with Barak and SPYDER air defence systems produced by Israel. Report here (paywall)

ISRAEL’S WAR AGAINST HEZBOLLAH

 

Two IDF soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah attack in southern Lebanon on Sunday, as missiles and drones rained down across much of northern Israel throughout the day. Report here

 

An IDF officer was seriously wounded and another soldier was moderately hurt during fighting against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon last Thursday.Report here

 

Eight Israeli soldiers were wounded, five of them seriously, in a Hezbollah rocket attack in northern Israel on Friday. Report here

 

On Saturday, Hizbullah launched dozens of rockets and drones from Lebanon at Haifa and Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel. Rocket sirens sounded across the Galilee and the Golan Heights. A Hizbullah drone crashed in the parking lot of the Galilee Medical Centre in Nahariya. A civil defence squad shot down another Hizbullah drone with their firearms.
On Friday, several anti-tank guided missiles were fired at IDF soldiers, wounding two. Report here

 

Hezbollah on Monday launched a long-range barrage of missiles at central Israel, in its deepest attack since hostilities intensified last week, wounding 16 people and causing damage to “infrastructure” and a daycare (nursery). Report here

 

Hizbullah spent months restocking its arsenal of rockets and drones, using support from Iran and its own weapons factories to prepare for a new war with Israel drawing on a monthly budget of $50 million, most of it from Iran. Hizbullah’s current arsenal included 25,000 rockets and missiles, most of them short- and medium-range.
Hizbullah has also dispatched fighters from its Radwan force back to southern Lebanon. They had been withdrawn from the area after the 2024 conflict.  Report here

 

Renewed threat: Hizbullah is increasingly causing casualties among Israeli troops and carrying out attacks against communities in northern Israel.
Their anti-tank missile teams have begun returning to areas from which they had withdrawn and are targeting Israeli forces deployed in forward defensive positions intended to prevent attacks on northern Israeli communities.
Hizbullah is estimated to retain about 20% of its original military capabilities. It still possesses thousands of missiles, most of them short-range while hundreds are precision-guided and can reach Tel Aviv.
They also retain thousands of anti-tank missiles as well as anti-ship missiles that threaten Israel’s offshore gas platforms.
Hizbullah’s Radwan force has rebuilt its strength and currently numbers 5,000 fighters. Its anti-tank teams are positioned 5 km. from the Israeli border, sometimes even closer. Report here

 

The Lebanese Christian and Sunni publics, who together form the bulk of the country’s population, have been outspoken in their condemnations of Hizbullah for dragging Lebanon into a destructive war contrary to the country’s interests. And many Lebanese Shi’ites, including Nabih Berri, the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, have joined the chorus of disapproval. Article here

 

THE BBC

 

BBC Persian, which broadcasts to audiences inside Iran, mistranslated remarks by Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defence, telling viewers Washington was bringing death to the Iranian “people”.

In fact, Mr Hegseth had said the Iranian “regime” was being targeted.

The BBC later issued a correction.Report here (paywall)

RUSSIA

 

Since the war began, Russia has passed to Iran the locations of U.S. military assets, including ships and aircraft. Report here (paywall)

GERMANY

 

Interrupted by a pro-Palestine demonstrator at a recent election event, Chancellor Merz stated that his government stands firmly with Israel and with the Jewish people. Addressing the conflict itself, he added that if those attacking Israel were to lay down their weapons, the war would end within 24 hours, underscoring his view that Israel is fighting for its existence and for the freedom of its citizens.

Report herevideo here

DEFENCE

 

The U.S. Army has awarded Elbit Systems of America (a subsidiary of Israel’s Elbit Systems Ltd) a $120.5 million contract to develop a next-generation battlefield system, the Soldier Borne Mission Command, designed to give soldiers real-time intelligence and faster decision-making in combat.   Report here

Defence giant Elbit Systems has become the largest Israeli firm by market value listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange after surpassing Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries and the country’s biggest lenders, Bank Hapoalim and Bank Leumi.Report here

SOLIDARITY

 

Taiwan has donated NT$5.14 million (over £120,600) for emergency operations and life-saving equipment to Israel amid Iranian ballistic missiles attacks, expressing “solidarity” with a fellow democracy under constant threat, as China continues to support Iran.Report here

BUSINESS

 

Google has announced the completion of the acquisition of cybersecurity company Wiz for $32 billion – the biggest-ever acquisition of an Israeli company.
The company’s four founders left jobs at Microsoft in 2020 to set up their cloud security startup.Report here

COMMENT & OPINION

 

Iran War

 

Yair Lapid (Leader of the Opposition in Israel’s Knesset): the current operation against the Iranian regime presents a rare and compelling case for a Just War. The Just Cause was established not merely by the regional attacks of October 7 or subsequent proxy strikes, but by the imminent and catastrophic threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. Recent intelligence indicates that Iran had achieved a breakout capacity of multiple nuclear warheads, leaving the West with no defensive alternative but to strike.

Decades of negotiations, including the failed 2025 summits, proved that the Iranian regime used dialogue only as a strategic clock-running exercise. Therefore, military action moved from a choice to a terminal necessity.

The coalition’s surgical targeting of military and nuclear infrastructure is contrasted with Iran’s use of cluster munitions and indiscriminate ballistic strikes on civilian centres like Tel Aviv and Beit Shemesh. Article here (paywall)

 

 

Amb. Freddy Eytan: When rogue states like Iran or terrorist organizations such as Hizbullah or Hamas sow terror, blatantly disregard signed agreements, and (Iran) pursue their nuclear programme, international law is rendered irrelevant and sidelined by force of arms, the only means to impose the diplomatic agenda.
How can we admit and tolerate that for more than five decades the Islamic revolution has been responsible for the majority of acts of terror and terrorist attacks around the world and that its spiritual leader has the blood of many innocent people…on his hands?
Western powers have tried several approaches to negotiate with the Iranian regime, including appeasement, negotiations, and sanctions. Yet the Iranian government has not been deterred or convinced to end its nuclear programme, whose primary objective is the destruction of the Jewish state.   Article here

 

Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg: The moral and legal question is whether, in the real world, states have the right – indeed the obligation – to defend their citizens against a fanatical regime that clearly proclaims its intentions to wipe out its opponents and builds rockets and centrifuges for making nuclear weapons for doing this.

Iran’s own forces and proxies have launched or facilitated hundreds of lethal strikes against Israeli civilians in recent years. No international law or principle of justice requires a nation to absorb such heinous attacks while waiting for some UN body to authorize defensive action. Article 51 of the UN Charter affirms the inherent right of self-defence.

A regime that calls for the elimination of another UN member state cannot reasonably expect that state (i.e. Israel) to treat its march toward nuclear capability as a routine matter of sovereign discretion. In a world of precision missiles and nuclear breakout timelines measured in weeks, not years, waiting for the mass slaughter of a mushroom cloud is not prudence; it is abdication.

The war against Iranian tyranny is not the result of lust for conflict in Washington or Jerusalem. It comes because Tehran has made the status quo untenable. Article here (paywall)

Wall St Journal Editorial: Editorial: The (Iran) regime for now thinks it can outlast the U.S.  News reports say Russian intelligence is helping Iran target U.S. forces and radars. That reinforces the point that the U.S. is fighting a larger axis…Stopping now amid some short-term economic discomfort would be a victory for the mullahs. They can’t be allowed to conclude that shutting down oil flows is their passport to survival now and in the future. Editorial here (paywall)

 

 

Stuart Gottlieb:  The primary objectives of the operation are obvious and reasonable. For nearly 50 years, the Iranian regime has been at war against America and its interests in the region, and over the past decade it had been escalating dramatically. Not only was Tehran moving ahead full steam toward a nuclear weapons capability, it radically increased its support for terror proxies in the region, culminating with the Oct. 7 Hamas-led massacre in Israel…This was not a specific “regime change” operation requiring a direct U.S. long-term commitment. It was a rare opportunity to eliminate a decades-old security threat to the region and the world, and offer the possibility of a better future for the Iranian people. Article here

 

THE US & Israel

 

Mark Dubowitz: A dangerous lie has taken hold in Washington: that Israel somehow pressured the U.S. into war with Iran. Both President Trump and Secretary of State Rubio have said this is wrong. Rubio said the U.S. faced “a threat that was untenable.”…

When Netanyahu met Trump in Florida last December, the president had already green-lighted an Israeli strike on Iran’s missile infrastructure. When they met again at the White House, Washington knew exactly what was coming and decided to lead the war. The claim that Israel pressured the U.S. president into war is not just factually hollow – it veers dangerously close to antisemitic fringe narratives.
But the bigger point that keeps getting buried is that Iran’s missiles and nuclear programme and terror are America’s problem. They are being fired right now at U.S. forces, American bases, our embassies, and our Gulf Arab allies. Iran is actively developing intercontinental ballistic missiles that could one day reach the American homeland. Dismantling that regime’s nuclear, missile, and terror infrastructure is core American national security.
Israel didn’t drag us into this war. It enabled us to fight it smarter, faster, and at far less cost than we ever could have alone.Article here

 

Bernard-Henri Levy:  To believe that a country the size of New Jersey could twist the arm of a country of 350 million, equipped with the most powerful military and the most sophisticated network of bases in history, and governed by a president of unrivalled egotism? It is simply grotesque.

But the more serious problem is that this fable revives a very old and toxic lie. This is how people thought in the 1930s – those who saw in “the Jews” a community of conspirators pushing nations toward war, pulling the strings of catastrophe, and scheming to provoke conflicts from which they expected to profit.Article here (paywall)

 

 

Hizbullah

 

 

Eyal Zisser: In Nov. 2024, under American pressure… Israel was forced to accept a ceasefire. In doing so, it granted Hizbullah a lifeline – one it used to regroup and rebuild.
Hizbullah will not voluntarily relinquish its weapons. What is needed is a decisive military campaign that will lead to its defeat.Article here

 

Wall St Journal Editorial: Hizbullah began firing rockets and drones into Israel on Monday and has carried out 100s of more attacks since. Hizbullah’s entry into the war, with disregard for the Lebanese people, is another reminder of the terror and destruction Iran’s regime has spread. Editorial here (paywall)

 

Jason Greenblatt: Lebanon’s Breakout Moment: It’s time to finally eliminate Hizbollah. For decades, the Lebanese people have lived under the shadow of a state within a state: Hezbollah, an armed proxy of the Iranian regime that hollowed out Lebanon’s sovereignty, economy and political system. Today, circumstances have created an opening that may not come again for generations. If Lebanon is ever going to reclaim its independence, this is the moment. Article here

 

An Iranian-born ophthalmologist thanks Israel & the US

 

Dr. Houman David Hammati: What I celebrate – what millions of Iranians inside the country and in the diaspora have prayed for in secret for decades – is the possibility that a regime which has no right to exist may finally be forced to go.

No nation, no people, should have to live under that (regime)…What we are witnessing is not aggression – it is necessary surgery to remove a tumour that has metastasized for 47 years. The tumour is the Islamic Republic that has hijacked Iran.
To the brave pilots of the Israel Air Force and the men and women of the U.S. military now carrying out this mission: You are not invaders. You are the answer to the prayers of millions who have whispered “enough” in the dark since 1979. Thank you, Israel. Thank you, America. The Iranian people – the real Iran – will never forget.   FB post here