News Digest — 3/9/26
Fresh Iran Missile Fire Triggers Sirens Across Northern Israel
Air raid sirens sounded across northern Israel on Monday morning (9th) after fresh missile fire from Iran triggered alerts. Meanwhile the IDF said it struck Hezbollah targets in Beirut on Monday morning (9th)).
The latest warnings came hours after a separate barrage earlier in the day set off sirens across large parts of the country, from Central Israel to the Sharon region and parts of the north.
During the earlier barrage, sirens were activated in central Israel, including the area around Ashdod in the country’s south. A woman in her 40s was wounded in Rishon LeZion after flying debris struck her at one of several impact sites, emergency services said.
“The Magen David Adom rescue service said paramedics arrived to find a crater in the road and stones scattered across the area. There was a woman at the site that had been struck in the head by debris thrown into the air ,” MDA said in a statement.
Paramedics provided life-saving treatment at the scene before evacuating her by intensive care ambulance to Shamir Medical Center. The hospital later said her condition was light but stable.
Police in Rishon LeZion said there were six impact sites across the city, likely caused by an internationally banned cluster-type missile that split in the air. Mayor Raz Kinstlich said damage was mainly to property.
“Home Front Command teams are checking the area to make sure no one is trapped inside homes, “ he said from the scene.
Authorities said there were likely additional impact sites outside the city, including Lod and Modi’n
Illit. No additional injuries were immediately reported.
Military officials said it remained unclear whether the missile had been intercepted or whether it had split before interception, leaving debris or submunitions scattered over several locations in central Israel.
Earlier alerts were also sounded in the Sharon region and around Zichron Yaakov where projectiles reportedly landed in open areas without causing injuries.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Pledge Loyalty To New Supreme Leader
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) pledged allegiance to to the country’s new Supreme Leader, Moitaba Khamenei, Monday (9th), after he was officially named as the successor to his father by the Assembly of Experts
In a statement, the Revolutionary Guards declared their readiness to follow the new leader’s authority.
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps… is ready for complete obedience and self-sacrifice to carry out the divine commands of the Guardian Jurist of the time, His Eminence Ayatollah Sayyed Moitaba Khamenei,” the Guards said.
Iran-backed groups across the region also welcomed the appointment.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels congratulated Iran’s leadership and people following the selection of Moitaba Khamenei as Supreme Leader, describing the move as a significant development amid the ongoing war involving the United States and Israel.
“We congratulate the Islamic Republic of Iran, its leadership and people, on the selection of Sayyid Moitaba Khamenei as Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution at this important and pivotal juncture,“ the Houthis said in a statement on Telegram.
The group described the appointment as “a new victory for the Islamic Revolution and a resounding blow to the enemies of the Islamic republic and the enemies of the nation.”
In Iraq, the Kataib Hezbollah militia also praised the decision expressing support for Moitaba Khamenei’s leadership.
For years Moitaba Khamenei has been considered the most powerful man in the security apparatus and a preferred candidate of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump expressed opposition to Khamenei’s son’s appointment. “Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone who will bring harmony and peace to Iran. I have to be involved in the appointment,” he told Axios last Thursday (5th).
On Sunday (8th), Trump told ABC News that Iran’s next Supreme Leader would need US approval to remain in power, warning that otherwise the leader “is not going to last long.”
“He’s going to have to get approval from us,” Trump told the American news outlet. He added that the goal is to avoid reported conflicts over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“I don’t want people to have to go back in five years and have to do the same thing again, or worse,” Trump said.
Netanyahu: Israel Fighting Existential War, Will Continue With Full Force
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said over the weekend that Israel is fighting for its ‘very existence’ against Iran and vowed that the air campaign against the Islamic Republic will continue “with full force.”
In a Hebrew-language video statement Saturday night (7th), Netanyahu warned that since the 12-Day War with Iran last June, the regime has sought to rebuild and bury its nuclear and missile capabilities deep underground, beyond the reach of attack. He also said that Iran posed a risk of preemptive strikes against both Israel and US targets.
Khamenei “ordered the restoration of Iran’s nuclear and ballistic capabilities and even buried them deep, deep underground, beneath high mountains, so they would be completely immune to any strike,” Netanyahu said.
This, the prune minister continued,would have positioned Iran to destroy Israel and to threaten the US and Europe.
“There is no doubt that after achieving this underground immunity, the ayatollahs’ regime would have used these terrible tools to destroy Israel and threaten the US and Europe, including the countries of the region, and the entire world with nuclear weapons.”
“However,” Netanyahu continued, “the Hamas invasion on Oct. 7, 2023, forced Israel to adopt a more ‘proactive’ stance, leading to direct confrontations with Iran that are now poised not only to terminate Iran’s military nuclear program but could also lead to the overthrow of the regime.”
Netanyahu predicted that the current war will result in regime change and the formation of a pro-Western government that will establish ties with Israel.
“Our success will bring not only the removal of a nuclear threat from the entire world and not only peace between Israel and Iran, it will bring a dramatic expansion of the circle of peace around us.”
The prime minister called on Iranian dissidents to prepare to rise up against the regime, declaring that the “moment of truth is approaching.”
“We seek to liberate Iran and live in peace with it. But at the end of the day, liberation from the yoke of tyranny, this liberation will depend on you, the brave and long-suffering Iranian people.”
Beirut: Five Senior Quds Force Commanders Eliminated In Israeli Strikes
Early Sunday morning (8th), the Israeli Navy, directed by precise IDF intelligence, conducted a precise strike in Beirut, Lebanon, targeting five commanders from the IRGC’s Lebanon Corps and Palestine Corps while they were meeting at a hotel in Beirut.
The Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps serves as a central liaison between the Hezbollah terrorist organization and the Iranian terrorist regime. Its senior officials synchronize activities across the various terrorist organizations operating in Lebanon. The commanders eliminated in the strike were advancing terrorist activity across Lebanon while hiding in a civilian hotel.
Majid Hassini was Responsible for transferring funds to the regime’s proxies in Lebanon to finance the activities of the Hezbollah organization, the Lebanon Corps., the Palestine Corps, the Hamas terrorist organization, and additional terrorist organizations operating from Lebanon. He was also responsible for funding and producing weapons to advance Hezbollah’s military activity.
Ali Reza Bi-Azar – Served as the head of the Intelligence Branch of the Qud’s Force’s Lebanon Corps. Bi-Azar was considered a significant source of expertise in the field of intelligence research and, in his role, gathered intelligence for the Hezbollah terrorist organization.
Ahmad Rasouli – Served as the intelligence officer of the Qud Force’s Palestine Corps. As part of his role, he was responsible for collecting intelligence for Palestinian terrorist organizations in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
In addition, Hossein Ahmadlou, an intelligence operative who worked to gather intelligence on the State of Israel for terrorist purposes, and Abu Mohammad Ali, Hezbollah’s representative in the Palestine Corps who was responsible for maintaining the organization’s ongoing coordination with the Palestine Corps, were also eliminated
These commanders were eliminated following the killing of the commander of the Lebanon Corps, last week, Daoud Ali Zadeh.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Are Hiding In Hospitals, As Hamas Did – Onid Habibinia
After a week of American and Israeli strikes, Emily Blout, an Iran specialist at the Pentagon, told Media Line: “Dispersal of the IRGC into these unusual locations, including hospitals and schools, is a core part of their strategy for survival. And the strategy actually makes sense. By decentralizing command into local autonomous units and by dispersing munitions across the country, the IRGC aims to maintain control even though its central leadership is eliminated. But hiding in places, especially in hospitals, is a page out of the Hamas playbook.
Many IRGC forces are now exhausted and left without secure bases or headquarters. Even their makeshift cover locations, such as sports stadiums, have come under attack. An Iranian military officer told the Media Line that the tactic of wearing down and rendering the Islamic Republic’s military and security apparatus effectively homeless has begun to work and it is unlikely they will be able to sustain this condition for the coming weeks.
He said the repeated bombardment of the leader’s residence and the cover sites used for the deployment of IRGC forces indicates an effort to crush the organizational structure of these forces. That would facilitate defections from the ranks of the IRGC, the Basij, and other repressive bodies One week after the outbreak of war, the IRGC has lost its commander and nearly all of its field commanders. It is said that at least 800 of its members have been killed. (Media Line – Jerusalem Post)
International Law Is Becoming A Suicide Pact For Western Democracies – Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg
Former head of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth argued in The Guardian on March 1 that joint American-Israeli strikes against the Tehran regime constitutes an illegal “act of aggression.” He claims that, according to the law of armed conflict, the use of force is illegitimate unless it responds to an attack that has already occurred and is acknowledged by the UN Security Council.
His simple theory is dangerously removed from the real world. Roth condemns the U.S.– Israel decision, as though it was taken totally out of the blue, and not a necessary response to aggression. He conveniently omits the central fact that, for decades, the Islamic Republic has been waging a violent war against the U.S. (The Big Satan) and Israel (The Little Satan), and many of its Arab neighbors.
The regime’s fingerprints are on the missile arsenals targeting Israeli cities, on proxy terror militias embedded across Lebanon, Iran and Yemen, and on terror plots around the world. When an adversary arms, funds and directs forces committed to the destruction of a neighboring state – and increasingly to the intimidation of the West – this is not peace. It is war.
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 of 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-defense.
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.
The writer is founder and president of NGO Monitor and professor emeritus of political studies at Bar-Ilan University.
