News Digest — 3/5/26
Missiles Fired From Iran And Lebanon Trigger Sirens Across Israel
Missiles from Iran were fired towards Israel three different times early Thursday morning (5th), triggering sirens across the country, from the Jezreel and Zevulun Valleys to Jerusalem.
In addition, missiles and drones were fired from Lebanon towards the Galilee and Golan Heights areas.
There were no reports of injuries. One missile fell in an open area.
At around 6:20 a.m., sirens again sounded in the Western Galilee after a UAW was fired from Lebanon to the area. About ten minutes later the Home Front Command announced that the incident had concluded. There were no reports of impacts or injuries.
On Wednesday evening (4th), the Home Front Command decided to ease the wartime restrictions starting from Thursday (5th).
As part of the changes, all areas of the country will transition from an essential activity level to a limited activity level.
Educational activities are prohibited (except for activities specified under the outlined exceptions).
Gatherings of up to 50 people are permitted, provided that a standard protected space can be reached within the required protection time.
Work spaces may operate only in locations from which a standard protected space can be reached within the required protection time.
The policy will take effect on Thursday (5th) at 12:30 p.m. and will remain in effect until Saturday (7th) at 8: 00 p.m.
Israel Preparing For Iran War To Last Until Passover Holiday, Official Says
Israel is prepared for the war with Iran to continue until Passover, a senior Israeli official told public broadcaster KAN News on Monday (2nd).
The duration of the war, the official stated, may depend on the Iranian people. A signal for them to take to the streets has not yet been given, but it is expected soon, KAN noted, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Additionally, recent security cabinet meetings judged that the rate of fire coming from Iran is expected to slow down due to damage inflicted by the days of Israeli and US strikes. According to the KAN report, the Iranian regime only has around 200 missile launchers left.
On Tuesday (3rd) the IDF revealed that it had destroyed approximately 300 Iranian missile launchers since the beginning of Operation Roaring Lion.
On Wednesday (4th), the military announced that it had dropped 5,000 bombs on Iran since the operation began on Saturday (2/28).
Ghadr-class ballistic missiles and launch platforms were targeted and destroyed during Israeli strikes, further diminishing the Iranian regime’s firing capabilities.
Additionally, US President Donald Trump, in a Sunday (1st) video posted on Truth Social, asserted that strikes against Iran will not cease until all of the US’ objectives are achieved.
“Combat operations continue at this time full force and they will continue until all our objectives are achieved. We have very strong objectives,” he said.
On Monday (2nd ), Trump said on CNN that he had thought the operation would take about four weeks, but noted that the US and Israel “are running a little ahead of schedule.”
Iraq Kurds Launch Ground Offensive Inside Iran
Thousands of Iraqi Kurds have launched a ground offensive in Iran, US officials confirmed to Fox News on Wednesday (4th).
An American source confirmed to Channel 12 News that the operation has been launched. The source stated that the militias are supported by the Mossad and the US, adding that the objective is an attempt to seize territory inside Iran in order to challenge the regime and inspire a broader uprising.
Earlier CNN reported that the CIA is advancing a covert plan to arm Kurdish forces for a ground raid in western Iran.
The operation, coordinated with the Trump administration, aims to spark a broad popular uprising and destabilize the Ayatollah regime, while Israel and the US continue “Operation Roaring Lion.”
The plan involves thousands of Kurdish fighters along the Iraq border, with the goal of creating “chaos” that would force the Revolutionary Guards to divert resources from suppressing protests to a challenging internal front.
‘I’ve Waited 30 Years: Families Of Iranian Terror Victims See Justice Served In US-Israel Campaign
Families of the victims of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, organized by Iran and carried out by an Iranian proxy, as well as a survivor of the attack, see the US-Israeli campaign against the Islamic Republic as justice belatedly being served, they told the Washington Free Beacon.
“I’m so emotional, because watching this Iran thing unfold is so different for me,” said Dawn Woody, whose husband Joshua was killed in the attack.
“I’ve waited 30 years to watch the leaders finally be held accountable.”
Dawn and Joshua Woody had only been married a few months when the airman first class deployed to Saudi Arabia with the Air Force to provide support services in Operation Southern Watch in the aftermath of the Gulf War.
He and the other airmen stationed in Saudi Arabia were living in the Khobar Towers where Iran targeted them in its proxy’s attack.
“His specific job was a weapons jammer,” Dawn Woody recalled. “Basically loaded the bombs on F-15s. He was so proud of what he was doing and would have been a career military man. That was the plan anyway.”
A day before Joshua Woody was set to return home, a truck bomb exploded at the Khobar Towers complex, killing him and 18 other Americans and wounding nearly 500 more people.
The US government eventually announced that Hezbollah Al-Heiaz, an Iranian proxy, then operating in Saudi Arabia, was responsible.
By 2005, a federal judge ruled that the Islamic Republic itself was directly involved in the planning and execution of the attack.
Dawn Woody spent a decade in the Secret Service, a role that at times gave her an up-close view of how presidents handled Tehran.
“I worked when Obama sent, literally, a pallet of cash back to Iran,” Woody told the Free Beacon, referencing the infamous payments that comprised part of former President Barack Obama’s Iran deal.
“It was a hard day for me, knowing that they were giving money back to the people that murdered my husband,”
The Islamic Republic’s continued attacks against US service members—often carried out through its various proxy groups in the Middle East— were one reason President Donald Trump gave for his decision to launch the ongoing operation against Iran.
“Iranian forces killed and maimed hundreds of American service members in Iraq,” Trump said in remarks early Saturday morning (2/28)
“The regime’s proxies have continued to launch countless attacks against American forces stationed in the Middle East in recent years, as well as US naval and commercial vessels in international shipping lanes. It’s been mass terror, and we are not going to put up with it any longer.”
Herman Charles Marthaler, injured in the Khobar attack, told the Free Beacon that he strongly supports Trump’s move to strike the Iranian regime.
“I just hope we never quit until it’s all done,” he said. “Well, I want to get rid of all the bad actors in Iran so that the people there can form their own government. We have people all over the world cheering for what we’re doing over there – all Iranians.”
Brent Marthaler was known for his “great attitude” and for “keeping spirits high”among his fellow airmen, according to a biographical sketch the Air Force compiled. After the bombing, he taught Sunday School classes to children at the base chapel. “I support the president 1,000 percent,” he said, “I think he’s trying to make America better for everybody.”
Michael Harner, then a first lieutenant in the Air Force who was wounded in the bombing, recalled in a 2011 account of the attack, watching a truck pull up to the towers as he stood on his balcony.
“There was no shooting, no crashing into the fence, nothing threatening while I stood there watching,” he said.
“However, something didn’t feel right about the situation. I sat down in front of a sliding glass door, and within a minute or two, the loudest explosion I have ever heard went off. Even though I had closed the curtains over the glass doors, the glass from the doors flew into my body. The whole event took about 15 seconds”
Harner, like the loved ones of the airmen killed in the attack, told the Free Beacon that he has waited for decades for the Islamic Republic to be brought to justice.
I am a Christian, and I believe in forgiving others for what they’ve done, but I do believe in justice and I believe it has been a long time in coming,” he said. “It should have been done a while ago.”
Israel Has Become America’s Not-So-Secret Weapon – Hal Brands
The ongoing war against Iran highlights the rise of a full-blown warfighting alliance between Israel and the U.S. By binding closer together in a regional military hegemon and a global superpower, that alliance has put America and Israel in a commanding position to remake the Middle East.
Fear of offending Israel’s Arab enemies, and Israel’s insistence that it be able to defend itself by itself, meant that the two countries mostly kept their distance when it came to military operations. In 1991, the U.S, pushed to keep Israel out of the war against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.
Over the past decade, nowever, the threat posed by Iran and its regional proxies have reshaped the U.S.-Israel relationship.
The current conflict has brought an entirely new level of cooperation. U.S. and Israeli officials methodically planned a combined offensive meant to wipe out Iran’s leadership and cripple its military. Israel and American agencies have reportedly shared sensitive targeting intelligence. U.S, planes and tankers fly from Israeli bases. Other forms of cooperation are likely hidden from public view.
This war then, is a coming-out party for a pact that fuses Israeli tenacity and risk-taking to American global reach. Israel is a force multiplier, not a free rider. It possesses tremendous military, intelligence and technological strengths of its own.
Little wonder that Trump’s administration has labeled Israel a “model ally,” an example to which other countries that seek U.S. support should aspire, in an unsettled region, what team would you rather be on?
The writer is a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
“The Two Most Powerful Air Forces In The World, The U.S. And Israel Are Dominating The Skies” Over Iran
Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command said Tuesday (3rd), “By order of the President of the United States and the Secretary of War, our military in the Middle East is undertaking an unprecedented operation to eliminate Iran’s ability to threaten Americans as they’ve been doing for nearly half a century….More than 50,000 troops, 200 [jet] fighters, two aircraft carriers, and bombers from the United States are participating in this operation and more capability is on the way.
“We’ve already struck nearly 2,000 targets with more than 2,000 munitions. We have severely degraded Iran’s air defenses and destroyed hundreds of Iran’s ballistic missiles, launchers and drones. And in simple terms, we’re focused on shooting all the things that can shoot at us. Our B2 bombers and B1 bombers have executed uncontested surgical strikes against multiple missile facilities deep inside Iran.”
“Thus far, we’ve destroyed 17 Iranian ships, including the most.operational Iranian submarine that now has a hole in its side. For decades, the Iranian regime has harassed international shipping. Today, there’s not a single Iranian ship underway in the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Harmuz, or Gulf of Oman, and we will not stop….We’re hunting Iran’s last remaining mobile ballistic missile launchers to eliminate what I would characterize as their lingering launch capability.”
“The Iranian regime has launched over 500 ballistic missiles and over 2,000 drones. To be clear, Iran is indiscriminately targeting civilians as they launch their missiles and drones. You’ve seen it on TV. The evidence is crystal clear and overwhelming. Having said this, we are seeing Iran’s ability to hit us and our partners is declining, while our combat power, on the other hand, is building”
“Our naval forces have deployed multiple waves of cruise missiles, obliterating Iranian command and control and air defense capabilities…. U.S. air forces are doing what they do best, executing a high volume of air strikes right into Iran. Operationally, the two most powerful air forces in the world, the U.S. and Israel, are dominating the skies over the world’s largest state sponsor of terror.” (Fox News)
