News Digest — 3/20/26
Five Sirens In One Hour: Missiles Launched From Iran, Damage In Shfaram and Kiryat Ata, No Injuries
Sirens were sounded five times within an hour on Thursday evening (19th) following missile launches from Iran. Four of the sirens were in the Jerusalem and Sharon areas, and one in Haifa and the Galilee.
The missile launched toward Haifa was a cluster missile. Teams were dispatched to search an area where shrapnel fell near a structure in Kiryat Ata. In Shfaram damage was reported due to shrapnel impact. No injuries were reported.
Israel Railways reported that shrapnel fell in an operational railway compound in the northern region. A small fire broke out following the impact but was extinguished quickly with no injuries reported.
Around 3: a.m. Friday morning (20th), sirens were again heard in northern Israel due to launches from Iran. No injuries or damages were reported.
Meanwhile a rocket launched from Lebanon Thursday evening (19th) hit a five-story building in Kiryat Shmona, injuring four people, including a man in his 60s in serious condition, a 69-year-old woman in moderate condition and two young adults in their 20s, in light condition. All of them were evacuated to the hospital for medical care.
PM Netanyahu: Iran At Its Weakest, Thanks To US-Israel Cooperation, Regime Change Possible
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that if the US and Israel had not struck Iran in joint operations, Epic Fury and Roaring Lion, the world would have faced a nuclear holocaust.
The Thursday (19th) press conference claimed that in about a year, Iran would have been able to build intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of not only reaching Israel, but the US. Because of this, he argued, the West must reassert itself against the axis of evil headed by Iran.
“People want to be naive, they don’t want to see what kind of world we’re living in,” he said. “If you look at the world as it is today, you have to be blind not to see that the democracies, led by the United States,have to reassert their will to defend themselves and to oppose their enemies in time, while there’s still time, before the jarring gong of danger wakes them up – and wakes them up too late.
Beginning the conference in Hebrew, Netanyahu addressed Israel’s citizens, saying he was proud of them for facing the difficulties of Operation Roaring Lion. He also emphasized the importance of following Home Front Command guidelines, and said that the military was focused on three goals: disrupting Iran’s nuclear program, disrupting their ballistic missiles capabilities, and presenting an opportunity for the Iranian people to “take their fate in their own hands.”
“We’re winning, and Iran is being decimated,” Netanyahu said, noting that Iran’s missile and drone arsenal is being massively degraded and destroyed.
“What we’re destroying now are the factories that produce the components to make these missiles and to make the nuclear weapons that they’re trying to produce,” Netanyahu said.
Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles after 20 days of US-Israeli air attacks, Netanyahu added.
Despite the nearly three weeks war, it was still too soon to tell whether Iranians will take to the streets to try to overthrow their government, Netanyahu said.
“It is up to the Iranian people to show that, to choose the moment and to rise to the moment,” he said.
“You, the citizens of Israel, are asking, ‘How much time will it take?” Netanyahu said. “And I say it will take as much time as it needs.”
Netanyahu refused to answer directly whether he would recognize exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, instead calling him a “force for good.”
When asked about the future possibilities for the leadership fof Iran, following Israel assassination of multiple government regime officials, Netanyahu admitted that he is not sure who is currently running Iran.
“I think that the role that Khamenei has had is not going to be translated to anyone, not to Moijtaba if he’s there, and not to anyone else,” he said, adding that they are “seeing cracks” in the regime’s authority and leadership.
Netanyahu also spoke about Iran’s attacks on countries worldwide, describing the country as a “death cult” trying to “blackmail the world” through its control of the Strait of Hormuz
During his address, Netanyahu also stated that he and US President Donald Trump were fully aligned on the dangers of the Iranian regime, claiming that Trump had told him that they had to make sure Iran did not have nuclear weapons. He also fully denied claims that Israel had dragged the United States into a war with Iran, calling it “fake news.”
“Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do? Come on,” he said.
Netamyahu stated that the world owed Trump a debt of gratitude for Operation Epic Fury, as he had been safeguarding international interests by doing so. He claimed that without Trump, Iran would have developed ICBMs to strike the United States.
Netanyahu repeatedly urged the world to imagine what Iran would do if it had nuclear weapons and missiles which could reach the United States.
”There is an enormous risk in not acting,” he said. And if you think that the oil markets are in trouble today, think of Iran with nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. Then think of the blackmail that you would endure.”
“I think what this war has done is unmask what Iran is,” he said, talking about how the ruthlessness of the regime had revealed what a danger it is. He cited the aggression it showed toward its citizens during the protests, and compared the lukewarm reactions of the world to the reactions of nations to Nazi Germany prior to World War II.
Netanyahu was also asked about Hezbollah, and discussed the extent to which the IDF had stymied their capability for attacks on Israel.
“Obviously Hezbollah is not what Hezbollah has been,” he said, mentioning the dwindling amount of missiles the terrorist group had been reduced to.
Gulf States To Israel, U.S., Don’t Stop Until Iran’s Regime Is Gone
Gulf states are publicly condemning Israel and avoiding direct involvement in the war with Iran, but behind the scenes are conveying a different message to Israel and the United States, according to an Israeli official familiar with the discussion.
Senior officials in the Persian Gulf countries have told their counterparts in Israel and the United States that the war with Iran must end with regime change in Tehran and that any other outcome would be worse, the official said.
“The Gulf states are praying that we finish the job, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and others, ”the Israeli official said. “For them, Iran has been a nightmare that has terrorized them for decades, and finally someone has risen to put an end to it. In closed conversations, the messages we receive are,’Go all the way and may God help you.’”At the same time, Gulf states requested an emergency session of the UN Security Council on Thursday (12th) to address the Iranian strikes on energy facilities in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. They are also promoting a new resolution condemning Iran over its attacks in the region.
Israeli officials said Gulf states are not participating in the war because they fear Iran, even as they quietly support efforts to weaken it
“Despite the recent Iranian strikes, the Iranians are still observing certain rules of the game,” the official said. “Another reason, and perhaps the most important, is that they believe Iran will survive the war and are worried about the day after.”
Israel’s Ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, said this week that Israel has offered assistance to Gulf states in dealing with Iran attacks and that “there are those who are benefiting from our expertise in those areas right now.”
The Official was asked whether the prospects for normalization with Saudi Arabia would improve after the war if there were regime change in Iran. He said that “at the moment the chances for normalization with Saudi Arabia have declined significantly, “ but added that a different regional architecture could emerge after the war, based on security and economic cooperation – though not necessarily open normalization.
Despite War, Israel Ranks 8th In Global Happiness Survey – Diana Bletter
Despite another year of war on several fronts, Israel once again ranked eighth in the World Happiness Report published on Thursday (19th), for the second year in a row, The U.S. was 23rd, the UK 29th, and France 35th.
Anat Fanti, a researcher at Bar-Ilan University, said, “It doesn’t surprise me because Israelis have a sense of meaning and purpose, which contributes to their overall satisfaction with life.” In sharp contrast to other Western nations, Israelis under the age of 25 were found to be the happiest demographic within Israeli society, ranking third globally. In the U.S., the happiness of young people has plummeted to 60th place.
“Young Israeli people are much more grounded compared to their age group in other countries,” Fanti said. They go into military service and make decisions between 18 and 21 that are far beyond their years.”
Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics found that overall life satisfaction among Israelis aged 20 plus remained remarkably high at 91.1% through 2024.
Why Hezbollah Will Go Down Fighting – Paul Nuki
All over Lebanon there are villages where Hezbollah’s patronage, guns and narrative of “resistance” continue to hold sway. It is the same in Dahiyeh, the group’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Yet Hezbollah does not represent all of Lebanon. Shia Muslims make up a third of the six million population and most have nothing to do with the group. Its decision to enter the war explicitly on behalf of its spiritual and financial backers in Tehran has exacerbated sectarian divides.
Julien Barnes-Darcy, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations says Hezbollah is no longer fighting from a position of strength, but from the realization that its existence is threatened. “You’ve got Israel squeezing from the outside and a strong segment of the population within Lebanon who see both a need and potentially an opportunity to finally cut Hezbollah down to size.”
“Hezbollah’s situation, in a sense, mirrors Iran’s wider position. For both of them, this is seen through an existential lens. It’s seen as a moment of truth, and if they are unable to put up a meaningful fight, then others are going to go for the jugular and look to finally get rid of them”
Nicholas Blanford, who has documented Hezbollah’s rise to become the world’s most powerful non-state army, said: “The guys doing the fighting, I don’t think they care one way or the other about the Iranians. They see this as part of their jihadi struggle against the Israelis. They’ve gone into this battle highly motivated. They’ve been itching to get back into the scrap with the Israelis.
But “I hear this a lot from Shias who have had to evacuate Dahiyeh or come from the south. You know, they are saying, ‘This is ridiculous’”
They say, “We’re already suffering now. They’ve made things even worse. Enough! We’ve had it with Hezbollah!”
Understanding Iran’s Imminent Threat To America – Dr. Dan Diker and Tirza Shorr
When the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran on Feb. 28, 2026, critics charged that there was no imminent threat to the U.S. These critics are mistaken. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its global proxy network have killed more than 1,000 Americans since 1979. Iranian-backed forces conducted over 180 attacks on U.S. military bases in 2023-2024 alone. Iran’s stockpile of 60% highly enriched uranium reached a breakout threshold for nuclear weapons before the June 2025 strikes.
The question is not whether Iran posed an imminent threat to the U.S. The question is why it took 47 years to respond to its longstanding threats.
Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who headed the CIA in the 1990s, determined that the Iranian nuclear program has constituted an imminent threat: “If their policy is to go to the threshold but not assemble a nuclear weapon, how do you tell that they have not assembled.?” By the time the U.S. knows with certainty that Iran has crossed the nuclear threshold, it may be too late to act.
Ayatollah Khamenei’s designation of America as the “great Satan” was not political rhetoric. It was a theological ruling encoding the elimination of American influence as a religious obligation of the revolutionary state. “Death to America”has been operational doctrine since 1979 – chanted at official rallies, painted on state banners, and repeated by Supreme Leader Khamenei at the close of diplomatic speeches, including during nuclear talks in February 2026, just days before the strikes.
Iran’s nuclear program transforms its hostility into an existential and irreversible threat. According to the last verified IAEA inventory before the June 2025 strikes, Iran held 9,875 kg. of enriched uranium, including 440 kg enriched to 60% purity – far beyond any civilian energy requirement. The IAEA Director General warned in April 2025 that Iran was months from potential weaponization.
The Islamic Republic of Iran built the Middle East’s largest ballistic missile arsenal, an advanced drone program, a five-country proxy network, a narco-terror enterprise operating inside the U.S., and a uranium stockpile assessed at one week from nuclear weapons-grade breakout.
Dr. Dan Diker is President of the Jerusalem Center, where Tirza Shorr is a senior researcher
(jcfa.org)
