IDF orders part of Beirut cleared amid war with Hezbollah
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces on Mar. 5 issued an “urgent” warning for some residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs — a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group — to immediately evacuate their homes.
Col. Avichay Adraee, from the Arab Media Branch in the Israeli military’s Spokesperson’s Unit, ordered residents of Beirut’s Bourj el-Barajneh, Hadath, Haret Hreik and Shiyyah areas to leave and “save your lives.”
The four neighborhoods have a combined total of upward of 75,000 residents, according to official data. However, local reports suggested that as many as 500,000 people could be affected by the evacuation, as the suburbs have large unregistered populations, including refugees.
“We will notify you when it is safe to return to your homes,” posted Adraee.
On Mar. 4, the IDF ordered all civilians in Southern Lebanon to move north of the Litani River.
“The activities of the Hezbollah terrorist organization are forcing the Israel Defense Forces to act against it with force. The IDF does not intend to harm you,” wrote Adraee in a notice posted to social media.
The spokesperson stressed that any Lebanese civilians “near Hezbollah members, facilities or combat equipment are putting their lives at risk.”
“Any home used by Hezbollah for military purposes may be subject to targeting,” he said. “Any movement southward may endanger your life.”
Israel: Iran strike needed to end ‘existential threat’
(JNS) — The joint U.S.-Israeli campaign was necessary to eliminate an “existential threat” from Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and to preempt an expected large-scale attack, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Mar. 5.
“After ‘Operation Rising Lion’ and ‘Midnight Hammer’ six months ago now, the Iranian regime began building new underground bunkers that would make their ballistic missile program and atomic bomb program immune within months. This was an unacceptable threat,” Shosh Bedrosian, spokeswoman for the PMO’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate, said in a press briefing.
“Even more urgently, we had to embark on the operation because we had such strong reason to believe the Islamic Republic wanted to attack Israel and American forces in the Middle East first. That is why it was urgent for the United States and Israel to act in time to prevent that Iranian attack from happening,” she continued.
Caroline Glick, international affairs adviser and spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a former JNS senior contributing editor, said in an interview with ABC News on Mar. 4 that Israel had been working “very, very closely” with Washington “on the Iran issue” for months and warned of Iran’s rapidly expanding missile production.
Iran “was going to produce a hundred missiles a month” while Israel can produce “seven interceptor missiles a month,” she said.
Trump rejects idea that Israel drew US into war with Iran: ‘If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand’
(JTA) — President Donald Trump rejected claims that Israel had pulled the United States into the war with Iran on Mar. 3, instead suggesting that he had “forced their hands.”
Trump’s comments came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Mar. 2 that the United States entered the conflict because officials “knew that there was going to be an Israeli action” and expected to become embroiled as a result. Rubio’s comments ignited questions about whether Trump was taking his cues from the Israelis.
“Based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they were going to attack first and I didn’t want that to happen,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Mar. 3 during a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “So, if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand, but Israel was ready and we were ready.”
The president’s claims appeared to contradict reports from the Pentagon to Congress on Mar. 1 that there was no intelligence suggesting Iran planned to attack U.S. forces first.
“If we didn’t do what we’re doing right now, you would have had a nuclear war and they would have taken out many countries.”
Critics across the political spectrum have continued to question the extent to which the United States’ actions were influenced by Israel.
Israel shoots down Iranian fighter jet; Iranian drone targets Turkey as war enters 5th day
(JTA) — Two unprecedented developments took place in the U.S.-Israel war against Iran on Mar. 4, as fighting entered its fifth day.
First, Israel said its forces had shot down an Iranian plane over Iranian territory, in the first-ever direct combat between the two nations.
Second, Turkey says an Iranian drone headed toward its airspace was shot down by NATO’s missile defense system, marking the first apparent attack on a NATO country other than the United States.
In an apparent effort to ignite Arab and Muslim countries against Israel, Iran has struck even countries that historically have shared elements of its opposition to Israel, including in Qatar, which has housed Hamas leaders, and Turkey, which cut off trade with Israel as it sided with the Palestinians in the war in Gaza. It has also struck Oman, which was brokering negotiations between Iran and the United States until hours before the war began.
“They were actually acting in a way that would have benefited Iran. Despite this, Iran’s bombing of Oman as a mediator, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan — all of these places without making any distinction — is, in my view, an incredibly wrong strategy,” the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said on Mar. 3.
The developments come as Israelis continue to experience intermittent sirens warning them of incoming missiles at the same time from Iran and Hezbollah.
Israeli couple’s wartime wedding in underground shelter
(JNS) — A wedding ceremony took place on the evening of March 4 in a public bomb shelter beneath Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Center shopping mall as the coastal city faced incoming ballistic missiles from Iran.
The bride and groom, Lior and Michael, were supposed to hold a traditional wedding ceremony, but the wartime restrictions against large gatherings forced them to cancel the event, Israel’s Channel 13 broadcaster reported.
The couple decided, however, not to postpone their celebration and to hold the ceremony four floors beneath the mall.
Among the concrete columns of the underground parking lot, friends and family assembled to celebrate the couple’s nuptials, including the groom’s parents who had traveled from Argentina.
