Israel Update 15.4.26

As the shaky ceasefire in the Iran War holds (at the time of writing), Israel’s efforts to destroy the Hizbullah threat in Lebanon continue. While Iran has stopped launching missiles and cluster bombs at Israel since 8/4, Hezbollah continues to terrorise Israel with near daily missile bombardments.

For context see Brendan O’Neill’s Spectator article in Comment & Opinion section below.

LEBANON

Israel and Lebanon held an historic summit on Tuesday in Washington DC, as envoys for the two nations met with the hopes of reaching a peace deal that would end decades of conflict, as the Lebanese government has distanced itself from Hizbullah and made efforts to disarm the Iran-backed terror group, though Israel is sceptical of its ability to do so.

Hizbullah responded on Tuesday by yet again bombarding Israel with missiles.

Following the meeting with his Lebanese counterpart, Israel’s envoy said “We are both united in liberating Lebanon from an occupation power dominated by Iran called Hizbullah.” Report here

HIZBULLAH

Over the course of the last week, Hezbollah has claimed at least 24 distinct attacks against IDF positions and northern Israeli towns, primarily using short-range rockets and explosive UAVs. Today April 15 Hezbollah launched approximately 30 rockets into northern Israel.One person was reported wounded.

Last Wednesday, the IDF targeted more than 100 Hizbullah sites in Lebanon within 10 minutes, including headquarters, intelligence command centres, and infrastructure tied to its missile and naval forces, its Radwan Force and aerial unit. Nearly all of Hizbullah’s clandestine headquarters were hit in the opening strike and some 300-350 Hizbullah operatives, including senior commanders, were killed. The operation was described as more significant than the 2024 exploding-pager attack, which primarily eliminated field operatives. Reports here & here

The IDF advanced into the southern Lebanon town of Bint Jbeil, a Hizbullah stronghold, on Sunday, as they raided a hospital in the area where terror operatives had been holed up. Report here

The IDF published bodycam footage of troops locating Hizbullah weapons in a home in southern Lebanon.

IDF soldiers, in coordination with the IAF, also demolished several Hizbullah sites, including anti-tank missile launch posts and weapon depots. Footage here

The remains of a Byzantine Church dating back some 1,500 years in Nahariya were hit by a Hezbollah rocket on Friday night; however an ancient mosaic was undamaged. Report here

The stories of elderly residents of Israel’s North who are unable to get to shelters in time. Report here

THE US, ISRAEL & HIZBULLAH/LEBANON

US Vice President JD Vance accused Iran of jeopardizing peace negotiations over Israel’s continued strikes against Hizbullah, insisting that the current ceasefire agreement with the U.S. had never included Lebanon. “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t. We never made that promise. We never indicated that was going to be the case. What we said is that the ceasefire would be focused on Iran and the ceasefire would be focused on America’s allies.”
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart, in a conflict where they were getting hammered, over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them, and which the U.S. never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice. We think that would be dumb.” Report here (paywall)

OPERATION ROARING LION

Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on Israel continued until around 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 8, two hours after the US announced a two-week ceasefire.

Iran, during the fighting, launched some 650 ballistic missiles at Israel and more than half of the missiles carried cluster bomb warheads, which spread bomblets indiscriminately over wide areas.

The missile attacks killed 20 Israeli civilians and foreign nationals in Israel, along with four Palestinians in the West Bank. All 24 fatalities from Iran’s missile attacks were civilians. More than 7,000 people in Israel were injured.

At least 16 missiles carrying conventional warheads — with hundreds of kg of explosives — struck populated areas in Israel, causing extensive damage.

There were also some 50 incidents of missiles carrying cluster bomb warheads hitting populated areas, with hundreds of separate impact sites. Report here The 20 fatalities in Israel

The victims of the deadly Iranian ballistic missile attack on Haifa on 5 April were four members of the same family: husband and wife Vladimir Gershovitz 73, and Lena Ostrovsky Gershovitz, 68, their son Dimitri, or Dima, Gershovitz 42 , and his wife, Lucille-Jane Gershovitz 29. The attack also wounded an 82-year-old man, a 78-year-old woman, a 38-year-old woman and a 10-month-old baby, the latter with a head injury. Reports here & here

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met PM Netanyahu to thank Israel for its role in rescuing the two U.S. Air Force crewmembers whose plane had been shot down in Iran, the ambassador wrote on X adding “IDF & Mossad were helpful partners in the mission.” The mission relied in part on Israeli intelligence and tactical support to ensure the airmen were extracted before they could be captured by Iranian forces.Report here

YOM HASHOAH – ISRAEL’S HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY

A two-minute memorial siren sounded throughout Israel Tuesday morning 14 April, bringing the country to a standstill as it marked Holocaust Remembrance Day in the shadow of the ongoing war with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the fragile ceasefire with Iran.Report here

Six Holocaust survivors, Saadia Bahat, Miriam (Daisy) Bar Lev, Ilana Fallach , Moshe Harari, Avigdor Neumann and Michael Sidko lit torches at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on Monday evening, April 13, at the Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony in memory of the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. Their inspiring stories of survival may be found here: Click on the photos for their biographies

CZECH REPUBLIC

Extract of Statement by Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka:
I am in Jerusalem because the Czech Republic still remembers what it means to be surrounded by those who want you erased from the map. When Israel was fighting the war for independence and the rest of the world looked away, we sent weapons. The situation remains the same today. When other countries speak of punishing Israel for defending itself against brutal terrorism, we stand to defend the attacked nation. When other countries stop military shipments to Israel, Czech arms exports to Israel grow.
In a world that is rapidly becoming more dangerous, a true ally is defined by what he delivers. This means we will treat Jerusalem with the dignity it deserves as the beating heart of Israel. We are two nations that refuse to be lectured by those who have never faced a real threat. We do not care about the opinions of those who have lost the ability to distinguish between an aggressor and its target. The Czech Republic stands with Israel because it is the only rational choice for a civilized nation. Article here

THE UN

Last week, the UN’s 54-nation Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) nominated the Islamic Republic of Iran (among other countries including China & Cuba) to the UN’s Committee for Program and Coordination, which meets next month to shape policy on women’s rights, human rights, disarmament, and terrorism prevention. While democracies including the UK, Canada, France, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia, joined the nomination, the US was the only ECOSOC member to object. Report here

DEFENCE

Israeli defence electronics company Elbit Systems has announced that it has been awarded a contract worth $750 million to supply 36 Precise & Universal Launching System (PULS) artillery rocket systems to Greece’s armed forces.Report here

SPORT

Israeli goalkeeper Daniel Peretz drew widespread British media attention recently after helping Southampton, a club from England’s second-tier Championship, defeat Arsenal, current Premier League leaders, 2-1 in the FA Cup quarter-finals. Reports here & here

On April 11, Israeli gymnasts Artem Dolgopyat won gold and Noam Berkovich, bronze in the Men’s Floor Exercise competition, sharing the podium at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Osijek, Croatia.

At the FIG Acrobatic Gymnastics World Cup, held in Puurs, Belgium from April 10–12, Israeli gymnasts Shiraz Sokolowski and Ronnie Cohen won the gold medal in the Women’s Pair.

Uri Dekel, Ronnie Rothman and Ard Avir Deutsch won silver in the Men’s Group/Trio

Source: Follow Team Israel

COMMENT & OPINION

Hezbollah

Brendan O’Neill: The shameful lies about Israel’s attack on Hezbollah.

Extracts:

In solidarity with Hamas’s Nazi-like pogrom of October 7, Hezbollah started raining projectiles on Israel the very next day. It has fired around 12,000 missiles, rockets and drones at its neighbour. Scores of people have been slain, including 12 Druze children playing a game of football. Tens of thousands in Northern Israel have been forced into internal exile, leaving ghost towns behind them…
There is not one country on Earth that would tolerate such apocalyptic goading…

Peruse social media…, switch on the BBC, and you could be forgiven for thinking Israel is bombing Lebanon for sport…These are lies of omission. To obsess over what Israel is currently doing to Hezbollah without mentioning what Hezbollah has already done to Israel is to engage in flagrant acts of deceit.

Hezbollah…dreams of annihilating the “cancerous” Jewish state… it has promised to keep waging holy war against the Jews of the Holy Land.

The war of attrition it launched against Israel after October 7 was the latest stage in its fascistic vision of a Middle East free of those cursed Jews, who are the “descendants of apes and pigs,” in the words of the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Any coverage of the Lebanon crisis that leaves out these facts is not worth the paper it’s written on. Macron and every genuine progressive should be making one demand and one demand only: for the full surrender of Hezbollah and the liberation of both Lebanon and Israel from its hateful, violent ideology. Full article here (paywall)

Iran

Telegraph Editorial:
Tehran’s extremist theocrats cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. And its funding of terrorists and militia groups has destabilized the Middle East for four decades and has to stop. If those are considered unacceptable by Tehran then the war will continue, even if it is only prosecuted by Israel which continues to attack Hizbullah in Lebanon.
Even if the U.S. reaches a deal, how can Iran be trusted to stick to any of its terms? Countries reliant upon Gulf gas and oil cannot allow the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to restrict or regulate vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, siphoning off any toll money to buy more weapons or enrich their own leaders. The UK, Europe, China, India and others need to focus more on insisting that Tehran ends its blackmail. Editorial here (paywall)

Herb Keinon: After the ceasefire in Iran, Israel today faces far fewer significant threats than it did before. Iran, in turn, is considerably weaker than it was. While not all of the war’s aims were achieved, enough was accomplished to significantly improve Israel’s strategic position and security. The inability to remove all the enriched uranium or bring a conclusive end to the rule of the clerical regime in Tehran does not mean that the war has not fundamentally changed the regional reality. It has…

Before Oct. 7, Iran was steadily advancing toward nuclear capability, building ballistic missiles at a fast clip, actively preparing and prepping its proxies for Israel’s destruction. Today, Hizbullah and Hamas – the tentacles of the Iranian octopus – have been cut back sharply and the head of the octopus is stunned and battered. Is it a complete victory? No. But is it significant? Unquestionably.
…Israel’s doctrine has shifted to actively preventing the enemy from building capabilities. Some argue that the war will only intensify Iran’s drive for a nuclear programme. That may be so. But Israel and the U.S. have a strong incentive to prevent Iran from doing so. Iran can rebuild its nuclear and military capacities only if they allow it. It is reasonable to assume that they will not.
Iran’s claim of victory despite its tremendous losses is reminiscent of Egypt’s victory claim after the 1973 Yom Kippur War – a war in which, by most objective military measures, Egypt lost. Article here

Yaakov Katz: Final and absolute victory is never how war works in the Middle East and certainly not against an enemy like Iran. Military action can buy time and weaken, disrupt, and delay. But it does not, on its own, produce the victory. That is why, when we look at this war and ask what exactly was achieved, there is not yet a clear answer…
As long as this regime remains in Tehran, it will rebuild. It will develop newer missiles. It will seek to reconstitute its nuclear programme. Had Iran possessed a nuclear weapon, this war likely would never have happened. Which means Israel’s job will be to stop it again. Leaders need to explain that military success is real and important, but that it is not permanent. Article here

Mathias Dopfner: Commentators in Europe talking about Iran often say, “This is not our war.” Of course it is our war. It is far more our war than America’s. The infiltration of European societies by Islamist networks is further advanced and more acute here than in America.

Together with its terror networks, from Hamas to Hizbullah to the Houthis, the mullah dictatorship is perhaps the most effective and cruel source of terror in the world. They operate in European societies in particular, deliberately spreading hatred and violence in ways that erode our liberal constitutional order and strengthen extremist movements.

The aggressor in Iran – one that poses an existential danger to us – has for years been systematically pursuing nuclear weapons. Nothing has so far been able to stop it. It was in our European interest that America and Israel have finally taken joint action to weaken the Iranian regime. Iran has been set back by years. We have gained time. Now Europe needs to stand with the U.S. to make use of it. Article here

Amir Taheri : The outside world has been divided between those who, because they hate Trump or Netanyahu or even America and Israel as a whole, designate the mullahs as victors, and those who, translating their hatred of the Iranian regime into a wish for Iran’s destruction as a nation-state, declare Trump and Netanyahu as winners.

Anti-U.S. and anti-Israel circles exaggerate the effect of Tehran’s tactic of inflicting economic pain on the world by playing fast and loose with oil exports via the Strait of Hormuz and disrupting overall trade in a chunk of the region. That in turn intensifies the effects of the mullahs’ mischief-making. Article here

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Danny Van Buren: The modern meaning of victory cannot rely on past paradigms – such as a formal surrender or the total destruction of the defeated side. The parameters for defining victory must be assessed over time, based on changes in the regional and geopolitical reality created by the war, not solely on whether the enemy retains the ability to cause harm. Article here

JPost Editorial: Iran is outmanned, outgunned, and outclassed in any sustained contest with the U.S. and Israel combined. Yet it continues to make demands as if it is holding the cards and that the U.S. should be the one begging for concessions. If Tehran refuses to negotiate in a way that reflects the battlefield, then the U.S. and Israel should continue degrading the regime’s capabilities in recognition that the current diplomacy is detached from reality.
There is no virtue in reaching an agreement that allows Iran to emerge claiming it stared down a superior force and won better terms. The correct policy is to continue the campaign until Tehran surrenders the illusion of leverage. Article here

Stephen Pollard: How would you describe a nation which has had almost all of its navy and air force destroyed, most of its leadership assassinated, its military commanders killed, its air defence and radar sites taken out, along with many of its leading scientists, its ballistic missile stockpiles destroyed, and over a thousand of its domestic and global terror commanders killed? Former UK national security adviser Lord Ricketts told the BBC that “Iran has come out stronger.”
The narrative that “Iran is now more powerful, the U.S. weakened” is now everywhere – and growing. It’s a strange kind of victory for Iran, which has also had its proxy army Hamas reduced to rubble, seen the leadership of Hizbullah taken out, had its Syrian stooge Assad removed, had much of its economic infrastructure destroyed – and will more than likely now have to deal with an internal uprising that has been biding its time. Article here

John Yoo: Iran’s response to the war launched by the U.S. and Israel provides a reason beyond pure American self-interest to end the rule of the ayatollahs. Tehran broadened the conflict by attacking civilians in neighbouring countries uninvolved in the war. A regime that launches systematic warfare against civilians violates the core rules of civilized warfare. The U.S. and Israel would do the world enormous good by ending a regime that flouts our common moral norms in such a flagrant and destructive manner.
The rules of war are not complicated. Militaries may strike military targets… Militaries may not deliberately target civilians or threaten the commerce of neutral nations. Iran has crossed those lines repeatedly. Tehran’s flouting of all the rules of morality in war explains why the U.S. and Israel were right to confront the Islamic Republic now, rather than wait for its threat to gain in strength in the future, potentially wielding nuclear weapons.Article here

Jonathan Spyer: The essential components of the regional strategic picture remain in place. Iran remains an aggressive and dangerous power, with the ambition of expelling the U.S. from the region, dominating the Gulf states, and destroying Israel. The U.S., Israel, and the Gulf states remain determined to resist Iranian ambitions. The events of the last five weeks represent a round in this ongoing struggle.
Israel and the U.S. have demonstrated their vast conventional military advantage over the Iranians. They have also not yet demonstrated the capacity to turn that advantage into a strategy able to bring the struggle to a successful strategic conclusion by toppling the Tehran regime – the only way that this will end. Article here