Israel in March 2026: the most important developments in security
Israel spent March 2026 at war with Iran and Hezbollah. The war with Iran began on 1 March with US and Israeli strikes that reportedly killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei; Iran fired missiles at Israel, killing at least nine people in Beit Shemesh that day. Israel struck Tehran and Beirut at the same time on 3 March, hit oil facilities in Tehran on 7 and 8 March, killed Iranian security chief Ali Larijani on 17 March and said it killed Iran's intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib, in Beirut on 18 March. The Israeli military said 4,000 to 5,000 Iranian troops had been killed by 13 March. On 19 March Israel struck Iran's South Pars gas field, and Iran hit energy sites in the Gulf and Israel. Iranian missiles injured nearly 200 people near Dimona and Arad on 22 March. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on 31 March that Israel's war goals were past the halfway point.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel from 1 March and Israel struck targets across the country. On 5 March Israel ordered more than 500,000 people to leave the south and struck Beirut's southern suburbs. Israel began what it called a limited ground operation on 16 March and announced plans on 24 March to hold a security zone in the south. Lebanese authorities reported 1,247 people killed and 3,680 injured between 2 and 30 March; three UN peacekeepers died on 30 March. Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets in one day on 26 March, and four Israeli soldiers died in the south on 31 March.
Iran laid mines in the Strait of Hormuz, and the US destroyed mine-laying vessels there on 10 and 11 March. The Houthis in Yemen began attacking Israel on 28 March.
At home, the army chief warned of a manpower shortage, and Netanyahu planned to extend mandatory service. Israeli forces killed four members of a Palestinian family in the West Bank on 15 March, and Iranian missiles killed four women in a West Bank town on 18 and 19 March.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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