On April 8, Israel launched its most intense aerial blitz in Lebanon since the war with Hezbollah restarted. The strikes were particularly deadly in Beirut, where the Israeli military struck targets both in the suburb of Dahiyeh and, in a rare occurrence, the heart of the Lebanese capital. Israel alleges that Hezbollah operatives had moved northward out of the group’s Dahiyeh nerve center into the city.
US and Israeli forces conducted an impressive campaign that significantly degraded Iran’s primary elements of military power. The operation did not, however, destroy these capabilities outright or eliminate Iran’s ability to project meaningful power outside of its borders.
FDD Senior Fellow David Daoud and Bill Roggio examine the recent and fragile ceasefire in the ongoing Iran war. Will the fighting in southern Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah break the peace, and has the Iranian resistance movement missed a golden opportunity?
Three attackers opened fire on police officers outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, Turkey earlier today. Turkish police killed one shooter and captured two others. The affiliation of the attackers is currently unknown, but the incident comes almost a week after the Islamic State called for attacks on Jews during the Passover holiday.
Iran’s increasing use of cluster munitions in ballistic missile attacks since late February has intensified damage across Israel, with dozens of impact sites reported in major cities in the first week of April. Four people were killed in Haifa in a missile attack on April 6. Meanwhile, Israel is escalating strikes on Iranian infrastructure targets and boosting production of Arrow interceptors as part of its multi-layered air defense.
While the US-Israeli war with Iran has taken center stage, Israel’s Gaza front remained active, despite the US-brokered ceasefire that took effect on October 10 of last year. The Israeli military has documented 22 ceasefire violations by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups since the war with Iran began on February 28.
The renewed conflict in Lebanon has settled into a static pattern, despite remaining intense. Israel has narrowed its immediate war aims, while Lebanon remains unable to restrain Hezbollah, which remains defiant. This dynamic of impasse has led the international community to effectively tolerate the situation in Lebanon.
Israel targeted and killed Ali Shuaib, an employee of the Hezbollah TV station Al Manar, and two others who worked for the pro-Hezbollah Al Mayadeen channel. The Israel Defense Forces claimed Shuaib was a Hezbollah Radwan Force operative using his journalistic credentials to monitor Israeli troop movements.
The Houthis launched missile and drone attacks against Israel, the first direct military action since the beginning of the US and Israeli campaign against Iran that began on February 28. The Iran-backed Yemeni terrorist group threatened to continue and expand attacks until a series of conditions it issued are met.
Turkish spy chief Ibrahim Kalin’s March 22 meeting with senior Hamas leaders in Istanbul highlights Turkey’s continued high-level engagement with the group, reinforcing Ankara’s role as a mediator in Gaza ceasefire negotiations while omitting any discussion of Hamas’s disarmament. The meeting reflects a broader pattern of Turkish support for the group, evidenced by recent US Treasury sanctions on Turkish charities linked to Hamas.
The Israeli military announced on March 22 that it killed Walid Dib, a Hamas money man, in Lebanon. In addition to Dib, two other Hamas members operating in Lebanon have also been eliminated in Israeli strikes in recent days.
US and Israeli operations have continued to degrade Iran’s military capabilities while increasingly targeting the regime’s internal security apparatus. Strikes on Basij internal security and police units, alongside assassinations and reported morale issues, may be beginning to affect the regime’s ability to sustain repression efforts as US and Israeli attacks also expanded to targeting energy infrastructure.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem gave his second speech regarding the renewed war with Israel, once again arguing that his group was the victim of aggression and not the aggressor. He said that Hezbollah is fighting a war of self-defense on behalf of Lebanon and stressed that it would continue fighting until it secures adequate concessions from Israel.
Overnight Israeli strikes in Iran killed Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and Basij commander Gholamreza Soleimani. The eliminations add to the growing list of top Iranian officials who have been killed by Israeli and American strikes since the conflict began on February 28.
Israel executed more than 7,600 strikes on Iran by March 13, targeting nuclear-linked facilities, missile launchers, drone infrastructure, and military sites, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Israel continues conducting roughly 150–200 strikes per day as Iran continues launching ballistic missiles and drones toward Israel and the Gulf countries.
The renewed Lebanon war shows no sign of abating. Lebanon has yet to match its stern pronouncements on Hezbollah with equally tough enforcement, with the Lebanese military openly defying Beirut’s orders to disarm the group. Hezbollah has expressed its commitment to continue fighting in deed and word, including by pledging loyalty to Iran’s new supreme leader. Israel has responded by intensifying its operations as part of what it expects to be a long war against Hezbollah.
The day before an attack on the US Embassy on March 7, the Coordination Committee of the Iraqi Resistance had issued a statement warning that continued strikes on Beirut’s Dahiyeh area would elicit attacks against embassies and oil companies in the region. The ultimatum follows repeated Israeli strikes against Hezbollah infrastructure and personnel in Beirut’s southern suburbs after Hezbollah entered the war on March 2.
The November 27, 2024, ceasefire agreement in Lebanon has officially ended. Israel and Hezbollah are now reengaged in a full conflict after the group attacked Israeli territory on March 2. The Israelis have responded ferociously, targeting large swathes of Lebanon and promising that their campaign will continue until Hezbollah’s destruction.
The Israeli military killed Hamas commander Wasim Atallah Ali in Tripoli on March 5. The IDF said that Ali was responsible for training the group’s branch in Lebanon. His elimination adds to the growing number of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members who have been killed in Lebanon by the Israeli military.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem addressed Hezbollah’s latest war with Israel on Monday night, insisting that his group had fire rockets at Israel in defense of Lebanon, preempting a premeditated “war of extermination.” Qassem insisted that Hezbollah would not surrender its arms and vowed to continue fighting until achieving either victory in battle or martyrdom.
Israel has carried out more than 1,600 strike sorties against Iran in the first four days of the war, targeting Iranian leaders, nuclear facilities, missile launchers, and other military infrastructure, according to the IDF. Iran has responded with repeated ballistic missile and drone salvos that have killed at least 10 people in Israel and wounded dozens. The Israeli Air Force said that one of its F-35s downed an Iranian Yak-130 aircraft. The fighting has closed Israeli airports and forced widespread civilian alerts as missile barrages continue across the country.
The United States and Israel demonstrated unprecedented coordination and delivered impressive blows against Iranian military capabilities in the early stages of the current conflict. Now, as Tehran lashes out against US forces and regional partners, Washington and Jerusalem face the immediate challenge of striking Iranian ballistic missiles, drones, and their launchers on the ground before they can be fired, along with intercepting any projectiles that Iran has successfully launched before they hit military and civilian targets.
Israel continued military operations in Lebanon between February 23 and March 1, 2026. Israeli activities last week, the last days of which coincided with the onset of the joint US-Israeli operation against the Islamic Republic of Iran, were concentrated on policing activities but included airstrikes on Hezbollah’s assets deeper into Lebanon.
Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian terrorist organizations issued statements mourning the deaths of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Tehran regime’s other senior officials. While some groups made vague mentions of a response to the killings, none explicitly said they would retaliate against Israel or the United States.
Reports following US and Israeli military strikes on Iran say that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead. If true, is regime decapitation the opening salvo of the fall of the Islamic Republic? David Daoud and Joe Truzman are back with Bill Roggio to unpack what we know, what we don’t know, and whether this is the moment that reshapes the Middle East.
After the third round of nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington failed to produce meaningful progress, the US followed through on its threats against the Iranian regime. On the morning of February 8, in a joint operation with Israel, the US struck military sites in Iran and targeted the Islamic Republic’s leadership. The military campaign was supplemented with messaging to ordinary Iranians to take to the streets once the bombing ended, and Israeli sources say that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been killed.
Following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel has conducted a consistent military campaign against Palestinian terrorist groups in Lebanon. The Israeli military’s recent attack against a Hamas command center in the Palestinian camp of Ayin al Hilweh demonstrates that this approach continues to be Jerusalem’s preferred strategy against Palestinian armed groups that operate on Israel’s northern border.
Israel continued military operations in Lebanon between February 16 and February 22, 2026. Israeli activities last week were relatively more intense than in preceding weeks and included attacks on Hezbollah assets deep inside Lebanon, some of which the group reportedly intended to use against Israel in the event of a US conflict with Iran.
As US President Donald Trump convened the Gaza Board of Peace for its inaugural meeting in Washington, DC, the IDF continued to report numerous ceasefire violations in the territory. Israel also struck the Ain al Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon, Lebanon, stating that the target was used for the “preparation of terrorist activities against IDF forces in Lebanese territory.”
At a February 19 meeting of the US-backed Board of Peace in Washington, DC, five countries pledged troops to an International Stabilization Force for Gaza, and representatives of 40 nations committed approximately $7 billion in funding. The initiative is part of the second phase of a ceasefire plan launched in October 2025. Clashes between the Israel Defense Forces and militants continue in Gaza, where Israeli forces report ongoing ceasefire violations and operations against Hamas infrastructure.