JERUSALEM, Israel – Iran and Hezbollah ramped up their attacks on Israel and other Middle Eastern players overnight and continued the attacks on Thursday as President Trump indicated that the war would be over soon.
Hezbollah launched nearly 200 missiles at northern Israel overnight as Iran fired missiles at various targets.
The increased salvos are said to be part of a coordinated attack between Iran and Hezbollah, with the Lebanese terror group calling the operation “Devouring Storm.”
Israeli Defense Forces Military Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin explained, “The attempt to expand the shooting to many areas in the country is a direct response to the extensive and deep damage and the pressure we are exerting on them, and this pressure is increasing day by day.”
Israel launched a wide-scale wave of strikes overnight targeting Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure, locating and dismantling dozens of launchers, and taking out many Hezbollah operatives as they prepared to fire at Israel.
At the same time, Israeli forces targeted ten structures in the Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut, including the intelligence headquarters and command centers.
On the ground in southern Lebanon, Israeli troops located and dismantled rocket launchers and weapons storage facilities.
Defrin noted that last year, in a state of bankruptcy, Iran still transferred $1 billion to Hezbollah.
“We are targeting the head of the octopus in Iran. Its arm in Lebanon is hurting, and now it is doing everything it can to assist its sponsor in Iran. Therefore, by targeting it in Lebanon, we are also weakening it by targeting Iran,” Defrin said.
Lebanon declared that it is opposed to Hezbollah’s attack on Israel, but the Lebanese Army has not made a move to stop Hezbollah.
U.S. CENTCOM released footage of the U.S. striking Iranian planes, boats, and trucks.
The White House insists the U.S. is making great progress and that the war will be over “soon.”
“And we have very good news on the war front: namely, they are absolutely being destroyed. Iran is being absolutely decimated. That’s all I can say,” Trump announced.
Earlier, the president maintained that the war or “excursion” in the Middle East would help keep the U.S. out of a larger war.
“They had thousands of missiles, seven or eight thousand missiles. We got many of them before they got to launch. They have drones all over the place. We got money now. We’re knocking out the drone plants, as you know, going fast,” Trump said.
THE U.S. reportedly has admitted that it accidentally struck a girl’s school in Iran at the beginning of the war, killing more than 100 children.
In a post on X, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian listed the conditions for ending the war with Israel and the U.S., including “recognizing Iran’s legitimate rights, payment of reparations, and firm international guarantees against future aggression.”
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Meanwhile, Iran continues to target other Middle Eastern countries, as a drone hit a tower in Dubai. Another attack against Bahrain triggered a huge fire, and commercial ships were targeted by Tehran around the Strait of Hormuz.
In the U.S., reports emerged that the F.B.I. is investigating a possible Iranian revenge plot involving an offshore boat that would launch drones at California.
Due to the Iranian attacks and the threats to mine the Strait of Hormuz, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil from members’ emergency reserves. It’s the largest release of emergency reserves in the agency’s 69-year history.
About one-fourth of the global seaborne oil trade, as well as liquefied natural gas and fertilizers, passes through the Strait of Hormuz.
