Israel News
Daily Alert
Second U.S. Airman Shot Down over Iran Rescued Safely
on April 04, 2026
(NBC News) Gordon Lubold -
U.S. forces safely rescued the second F-15E crew member of a fighter jet that went down over Iran on Friday, two U.S. officials said Saturday.
One Rescued from U.S. Jet Shot Down in Iran
on April 04, 2026
(New York Times) Eric Schmitt -
American forces rescued an airman whose F-15E fighter jet was shot down over Iran, U.S. and Israeli officials said Friday.
U.S. Forces Rescue Missing F-15 Navigator under Heavy Fire
on April 04, 2026
(Israel Hayom) Neta Bar -
U.S. special forces, operating inside Iran, rescued the second crew member from the F-15 shot down over Iran after 36 hours. Fox News reported that the navigator moved away from the wreckage of his aircraft and climbed an isolated ridge, where he activated his rescue beacon.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sent forces to the area to try to stop the rescue operation. U.S. fighter jets struck the Iranian forces in an effort to isolate the rescue zone.
U.S. media outlets reported that local tribesmen assisted the navigator and the rescue forces, and that an IRGC force that reached the scene engaged in a fierce battle with the rescuers. Several members of the Basij militia and IRGC were killed in the exchange of fire.
Mediators: Latest Efforts to Reach Iran Ceasefire Hit Dead End
on April 04, 2026
(Wall Street Journal) Summer Said -
The current round of efforts by regional countries led by Pakistan to reach a ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran has reached a dead end, mediators said Friday. Iran has officially told the mediators it isn't willing to meet U.S. officials in Islamabad.
Israel Strikes Iran's Largest Petrochemical Complex
on April 04, 2026
(New York Times) Farnaz Fassihi -
Israel attacked Iran's largest petrochemical industrial complex in Mahshahr on Saturday, effectively shutting down all production at the Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex, according to two senior Iranian oil ministry officials. The airstrikes targeted two utility plants that provided 50 petrochemical plants inside the complex with gas, power and water. The officials said rebuilding the utility plants and bringing the production lines fully online again could take two years.
Israel's military said it struck the petrochemical complex "responsible for the production of chemical materials used for weapons," and that the sites were "central to producing materials for explosives, ballistic missiles and additional weaponry." Israel and the U.S. have intensified attacks on Iran's critical infrastructure in recent days.
At UN, Russia, China and France Block Push by Arab Countries to Authorize Military Action to Reopen Strait of Hormuz
on April 04, 2026
(New York Times) Farnaz Fassihi -
Russia, China and France on Thursday stymied a push by Arab countries to get the UN Security Council to authorize military action against Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying they opposed any language authorizing force. Bahrain's foreign minister, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, told the Security Council on Thursday that "Iran's aggressive intentions" toward its Arab neighbors were "treacherous" and "preplanned," and violated international law. He said Iran had targeted civilian structures such as airports, water stations, seaports and hotels.
Analysts say the Bahraini-led efforts at the Council are more symbolic than pragmatic; the militaries of most of the Persian Gulf countries are relatively small and heavily dependent on U.S. support. They have minimal experience combating a military the size of Iran's.
Iran's Cluster Munition Strikes on Israel Violate the Laws of War
on April 04, 2026
(Human Rights Watch) The Iranian government's repeated use of inherently indiscriminate cluster munitions delivered by ballistic missiles in attacks on Israel since Feb. 28, 2026, violate the laws of war and may amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch said on March 30. "Iran's use of cluster munitions in populated areas in Israel pose a foreseeable and long-lasting danger to civilians," said Patrick Thompson, crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Cluster munition bomblets are dispersed over a wide area, making them unlawfully indiscriminate in violation of the laws of war."
Cluster munitions disperse in the air, spreading dozens of bomblets. Many fail to explode on initial impact, leaving duds that can kill and maim, like landmines, for years unless cleared and destroyed. Human Rights Watch reviewed 30 videos showing descending ballistic missiles surrounded by numerous submunitions falling toward the ground. Most show missiles with 21-25 objects falling along their paths. Two of the videos show at least 65 objects. "The Iranian government should immediately stop firing cluster munitions," Thompson said.
Iran Is Using North Korean Weapons Against U.S. and Israel
on April 04, 2026
(Fox News) Benjamin Weinthal -
Bruce Bechtol, an expert on the Iran-North Korea strategic alliance, told Fox News that "The missile launched at Diego Garcia was a Musudan. The Iranians bought 19 of these from the North Koreans and took delivery in 2005....The most important threat from Iran...has been the ballistic missiles, launched not only at U.S. facilities and Israeli cities, but also at neighboring Islamic countries."
Rocket Launches into Israel Continued during Passover Holiday
on April 04, 2026
(Israel Hayom) Lilach Shoval -
During the 24-hour Passover holiday, 20 launches from Iran crossed into Israeli territory. Half were allowed to fall on open fields and half were intercepted. From Lebanon, 130 launches crossed into Israel.
IDF: More than 40 Hizbullah Operatives Killed on Wednesday
on April 04, 2026
(Times of Israel) Emanuel Fabian -
The IDF said on Thursday that more than 40 Hizbullah operatives were killed and dozens of sites belonging to the terror group in Lebanon were struck in the past day. The Israeli military said it has killed 1,000 Hizbullah operatives, including hundreds of members of the Radwan special forces, since Hizbullah began attacking Israel the day after the war against Iran began. More than 2,500 Hizbullah targets in Lebanon have been struck, including hundreds of command centers, weapon depots, and rocket launchers.
Hizbullah Operatives: "They're Sending Us to Die"
on April 04, 2026
(Jerusalem Post) Maya Zanger-Nadis -
Hizbullah Radwan Force members captured by the IDF revealed that their organization is facing a sharp decline in morale, and operatives feel that "Hizbullah is sending us to die...to avenge Ali Khamenei." One operative told interrogators that "morale is on the floor. No one has the strength to go out and fight."
3 UNIFIL Peacekeepers Hurt in South Lebanon; IDF Blames Hizbullah Rocket
on April 04, 2026
(Times of Israel) Emanuel Fabian -
Three UNIFIL peacekeepers were wounded Friday in south Lebanon near the Israeli border. The IDF said an explosion at the base near Odaisseh was caused by a Hizbullah rocket. "An examination of the launch trajectory clearly indicates that the firing was carried out by Hizbullah." The IDF published a map showing the trajectory of the rocket launch at the UNIFIL base.
Israel has long argued that UNIFIL has failed in its mission to block Hizbullah and, in line with a Security Council decision, UNIFIL will cease operations at the end of 2026.
IDF Destroys IRGC Ground Forces Base in Tehran, Strikes Mobile Command Center
on April 04, 2026
(Jerusalem Post) Tobias Holcman -
The IDF destroyed an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Ground Forces base and a mobile command post on Wednesday, while commanders were inside them, as part of strikes targeting regime infrastructure in Tehran, the Israeli military said on Thursday.
Leviathan Gas Platform to Resume Operations after War Shutdown
on April 04, 2026
(Ynet News) Sivan Hilaie -
Israel will allow the Leviathan natural gas platform to resume operations after a monthlong shutdown, the Energy Ministry said Thursday, restoring a key source of gas exports to Egypt and Jordan. While the Karish platform remains closed for now, the Tamar platform has continued operating throughout the war.
Wounded Twice since Oct. 7, Reserve Officer Determined to Return to Duty
on April 04, 2026
(Ynet News) Or Hadar -
Since Oct. 7, Maj. H., 38, a reserve company commander, has completed 550 days of reserve duty. In July 2025 he was wounded during operations in Gaza when an explosive device detonated near his force in Rafah. Less than two months after leaving the hospital, he was back in uniform. Two weeks ago, he was wounded again when an explosive drone struck the compound of his force in Lebanon.
Now recovering at home, he says he is determined to return to service. "The fighters and commanders in the company are an inseparable part of my family," H. said. "As long as I'm alive and walking on this earth, I will continue serving in the reserves," he said. "It is an inseparable part of who I am."
U.S. and Israel Preparing to Expand Strikes in Iran
on April 04, 2026
(Israel Hayom) Danny Zaken -
A diplomatic source from the region said the Iranians demanded an immediate ceasefire and guarantees that fighting would not resume if the negotiations ran into difficulties. The Americans demanded the full and unrestricted reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the handover of all enriched uranium.
Even so, the talks have not stopped completely, and messages are still being passed through mediators in the region. Following President Donald Trump's address to the nation on Wednesday, assessments in Israel and the U.S. are that airstrikes will continue for at least 10 more days.
The Plan to Bring Down the Iranian Regime
on April 04, 2026
(Israel Hayom) Danny Zaken -
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), led by Ahmad Vahidi, believes that despite the enormous damage, the regime can survive, that Trump will eventually lose patience, and that the Gulf states and Israel will not be able to sustain the economic paralysis for long. There is no legitimacy within the regime for negotiations.
The direction the U.S. appears to be taking in order to bring about Iran's collapse is an economic one. With Trump's latest 10-day ultimatum to Iran due to expire on Monday, escalating attacks are expected to target additional bridges and major railway lines, especially those leading to the capital, Tehran. The expanded target bank also includes various sectors of the oil industry, including petrochemical industries. The main reason is that these industries are controlled by the IRGC and serve as a primary source of income for it.
A diplomatic source explained, "The economic issue will begin to have an impact....Already today, most public-sector workers in Iran are not being paid, including large parts of the regular army. That is in contrast to the forces of the IRGC and its various affiliated mechanisms, where payments are continuing."
"Many factories have shut down or been taken out of operation, entire sectors of the economy have ceased to function, and that economic burden is having an impact. Even if the war ended now, the regime would not be able to begin reconstruction without a full lifting of sanctions." The next phase of the economic war could be a complete halt to Iran's oil exports, its oxygen pipeline.
Trump Says He Will Finish the Job in Iran
on April 04, 2026
(Wall Street Journal) Editorial -
President Trump on Wednesday said he's not ending the war with Iran until the job is done. The strongest argument for bombing Iran is to deny the radical regime a nuclear weapon. Only a naive person would believe the ayatollahs weren't set on acquiring a bomb or having missiles capable of hitting America. Someone had to stop them, and Mr. Trump acted when other presidents and world leaders would not.
U.S. Intelligence: Iran Believes It Is Strong Enough to Continue the War
on April 04, 2026
(New York Times) Edward Wong -
Multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed in recent days that the Iranian government is not currently willing to engage in substantial negotiations over ending the war with the U.S. and Israel. The assessments say the Iranian government believes it is in a strong position in the war and does not have to accede to America's diplomatic demands.
The U.S. and Iran are not in negotiations over terms of a ceasefire or ending the war, U.S. and Iranian officials said.
The North Korea Lesson for Iran
on April 04, 2026
(Wall Street Journal) Editorial -
President Trump decided to use military force to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon after diplomacy failed. This was a risky choice. But the U.S. experience with North Korea suggests the alternatives were even riskier. That history shows the limits of nuclear diplomacy with a determined foe, as well as what happens when the U.S. puts conflict-avoidance above all else.
During the Clinton Administration, North Korea denied International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors access to camouflaged nuclear sites and announced it would withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Clinton threatened sanctions. The U.S. military drew up plans for strikes on nuclear installations, and Defense Secretary Bill Perry presented a plan for a large military buildup in the region. Clinton deployed Patriot missile-defense systems to South Korea.
Former President Jimmy Carter informed the Clinton Administration that he intended to visit North Korea and try to defuse the situation. Clinton decided to let Carter proceed as a private citizen. Carter feared conflict above all and even opposed sanctions. He went beyond what he had been authorized by Clinton to discuss and announced a tentative agreement on CNN. The press and foreign-policy establishment hailed nuclear peace in our time.
Military options came off the table and Clinton embraced the deal, which became the 1994 Agreed Framework. For a time the deal seemed to work. Yet weaponization research continued on the sly. The regime's intent to build a bomb never changed. In 2002, North Korea reneged on the Agreed Framework and expelled inspectors. The George W. Bush Administration employed threats, sanctions and diplomacy but ultimately ruled out the use of force. In 2006, North Korea conducted its first nuclear test.
After that, U.S. military options became riskier. North Korea is now believed to possess 50 warheads, and it tests ICBMs that will one day be able to reach the continental U.S. The lesson is that U.S. presidents waited too long to stop North Korea. The risks of war were always said to be too high, it was never a good time, and there was always another diplomatic option to exhaust. North Korea is now a nuclear power.
Iran's radical regime will not have a nuclear program when the current Iran conflict ends. This has made the world a safer place.
Iran Has Miscalculated Disastrously
on April 04, 2026
(Telegraph-UK) Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp -
The ayatollahs never expected to find themselves in a sustained, direct, high-intensity war with the U.S. and Israel. Their thinking had been based on gaining ascendancy in the Middle East by proxy groups and ultimately by nuclear weapons.
The rulers of Iran spent billions of dollars building a series of terrorist networks that would do their dirty work for them. Yet Hizbullah, Hamas, and the Houthis have been very severely handled by Israel (and in the case of the Houthis, the U.S.) since Oct. 7, 2023, and their combined contribution to the defense of Iran over the last few weeks has consequently been strategically negligible.
In the minds of the ayatollahs, attacking their Arab neighbors would lead the Gulf states to pressure Trump to call off the war. It had the opposite effect. Behind the scenes, both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have reportedly urged the president to keep attacking until the job is done. Iran's strategy has instead consolidated opposition to Tehran.
Another strategic miscalculation has been the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. As a global economic attack, it reinforces the narrative that Iran is a worldwide threat. Both China and India have been significantly impacted, despite Tehran's selective permission for some ships and cargoes to pass through the strait.
Additionally, the regime is probably inflicting greater harm on its own economy. It depends on the strait for the import of food and other essentials, and for its own oil exports.
The writer, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, was chairman of the UK's national crisis management committee, COBRA.
A War of Psychological Attrition
on April 04, 2026
(Israel Hayom) Ariel Kahana -
In physical terms, the damage Iran is inflicting on the Americans, the Gulf states or Israel is minimal. By contrast, Iran is sustaining extremely heavy blows. Its economy was already shattered before the campaign began. Its military capabilities are being stripped away hour by hour.
That means the pace at which it is harming Israel and other countries in the region is negligible compared with what it had planned. Unlike Iran, those countries are, by and large, continuing to function, while the disruption to daily life caused by missiles and drones remains relatively limited.
Iran is trying to create the impression that the cost of the war is unbearable. But what is worse: gasoline at $4 a gallon, or Iran with an arsenal of intercontinental nuclear missiles? What poses a greater threat to the world: a short-term recession, or a deranged regime operating an ocean of drones in the Strait of Hormuz, terrorist cells across the planet, and seeking to impose Shiite belief on humanity by force?
Iran knows the West's weak points, its short-sightedness, short patience, and short-time horizon. In Tehran they know that in the West, people will talk about one American aircraft being shot down a thousand times more than they will about dozens of Iranian aircraft destroyed, hundreds of missiles intercepted and thousands of drones thwarted. That is the asymmetric psychological war they are hoping to win.
After Oct. 7, Containment Is Dead
on April 04, 2026
(Jerusalem Post) David M. Weinberg -
After the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas, Israel cannot brook illusions about the dawn of regional peace, nor can it return to "containment" policies that prioritized diplomacy over decisive military triumphs against jihadist adversaries. Israel can no longer accept policies that emphasize "quiet for quiet" and prioritize "restraint," because this allowed enemies to develop attack capabilities under the cover of diplomatic breathing time. That approach failed.
Therefore, Israel is gearing up for extended conflict at varying degrees of intensity, basing itself on a more aggressive mix between diplomacy and the use of force to scuttle enemy threats. Israel intends to proactively assert dominance along its borders and strategic ascendancy against threats farther away. Operation Roaring Lion in Iran is a demonstration of this.
Even after President Trump pauses American strikes on Iran, expect Israel to continue to make fierce, surprise moves against enemy strongholds throughout the region. Israel wants to be feared and militarily dominant - not loved. Jerusalem knows that its neighbors will seek true reconciliation only when Israel is strong.
The writer is managing senior fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy.
The Jewish Passion for Freedom and Human Rights Was Hijacked by the West
on April 04, 2026
(Jerusalem Post) Gerald M. Steinberg -
Freedom and human rights are universal values, and Jews have often been at the forefront of these struggles, playing central roles in the creation of the modern human rights movement, forged in the shadow of the Holocaust. They built strong institutions tasked with implementing these principles. But now these institutions and their leaders have betrayed the moral force behind their creation. They stand for and reinforce hate and demonization directed at Israel.
Rene Cassin, a Jewish jurist from France, was a principal drafter of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Raphael Lemkin (who coined the term "genocide") was a principal author of the Genocide Convention.
Peter Benenson, a journalist from a prominent Jewish and Zionist family in Britain, founded Amnesty International, turning it into a political superpower. Robert L. Bernstein, the head of Random House publishers, built Helsinki Watch to report on Soviet compliance with the human rights components of the U.S.-Soviet detente known as the Helsinki Accords. The organization expanded into Human Rights Watch. Bernard Kouchner, a French Jew, helped found Doctors Without Borders.
When the founders of all three institutions retired, their legacy and moral principles were abandoned. The new leaders were anti-Western, anti-American, and anti-Israel ideologues for whom the rhetoric of human rights was a convenient political weapon. They went from false claims against Israel of "war crimes" to the poisonous accusation of "genocide" - a heinous form of Holocaust inversion. In 2009, Bernstein began to denounce the organization he created - Human Rights Watch - for turning Israel into a pariah state.
The hostile takeover of the principles of freedom and human rights, and the institutions that claim to embody them, has done tremendous damage, not only to the Jewish people but also to the moral values themselves.
The writer is founder and president of NGO Monitor and professor emeritus of political studies at Bar-Ilan University.
Why Europe Is Wrong to Think Iran Is "Not Our War"
on April 04, 2026
(Politico) 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.
If the war in Iran is not a European matter, then the war in Ukraine is not an American one. Then Europeans should solve it themselves in the future, and alone. Ukraine and the Russian aggressor in Moscow are much farther from Washington than the mullahs and their terror are from Berlin or Paris. In a situation this critical, in which the Americans are once again pulling Europe's chestnuts out of the fire, it would be better to stand together. Europe shouldn't stab the American government in the back as it pursues these efforts.
Future American governments will remember this withdrawal of solidarity. If we have to cope in the future on our own with both the fight against the Islamism directed from Tehran and the imperial aggression emanating from Moscow, Europe will be overwhelmed. The transatlantic community of shared interests has sustained and protected us for 80 years. At the truly decisive hour, the "we" always prevailed. Now Europe says: Not me.
The American government is finally trying to weaken the mullahs' reign of terror by force of arms. And that is long overdue. For more than four and a half decades, Iran's Revolutionary Guards have terrorized the Free World. Their goal is not just the destruction of Israel and all Jews, but the destruction of the liberal democracy they despise precisely because it is free. Our way of life. Our security. Our interests.
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.
The writer is chair and CEO of Axel Springer, Politico's parent company.
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