The Iran Update aims to inform national security policy by providing timely, relevant, and independent open-source analysis of developments pertaining to Iran and its Axis of Resistance. This update covers political, military, and economic events and trends that affect the stability and decision-making of the Iranian regime. It also provides …

Key Takeaways: Northern Gaza Strip: Israeli forces continued operations in and around al Nasser Hospital in western Khan Younis on February 17. Israeli special operations forces arrested 100 individuals at the Hospital and killed Palestinian fighters operating nearby.Negotiations: An unspecified senior Hamas member told al Jazeera on February 17 that …

Whenever Hamas and Israel negotiate on prisoner exchanges, the name of Marwan Barghouti, a prominent Fatah leader labelled Palestine’s Nelson Mandela, is at the top of the list. In 2011, his name was put forward to be part of an exchange deal that saw over 1,000 Palestinians freed for Israeli …

At 2 am on Sunday, Mohamed F. awoke to the sound of hailing gunfire in Rafah. “I think they [Israeli forces] entered, and there were many, many clashes and shooting. Oh God, protect us,” he wrote in a text message. The sound of bombs exploding could be heard in audio …

The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday it had eliminated a senior Hezbollah commander in the terror group’s elite Radwan Force responsible for a March 2023 bombing in northern Israel, along with his deputy, in a strike in southern Lebanon the previous night. The IDF said its fighter jets struck a …

Few events in our lifetime are as shrouded in myth and conspiracy as the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Forty-five years later, however, we now have a much clearer picture of the dramatic events that played out on the streets of Tehran before a worldwide television audience. Certain myths have retained an …

In recent weeks, maritime attacks carried out by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, between Yemen, Djibouti, and Eritrea, along with retaliatory strikes by the United States and its allies, have significantly increased global shipping risks and raised the ire of many foreign governments. More than 40 …

On the evening of Saturday, Feb. 3, local time, US warplanes bombed facilities used by Iranian forces and Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq, in retaliation for the death of 3 US service members in a Jan. 28 drone attack on Tower 22, a US military base in northeastern Jordan …

On Jan. 18, Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Houthi movement, gave a televised sermon on the Iran-backed militia group’s television channel. It was just the latest in a series of public appearances, this one aimed at addressing the coordinated US-UK airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen and the Biden …

Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip is getting worse by the day. Leena, a sixth-grade Palestinian student at the Ramallah Friends School (RFS), passed us a folded, handwritten note. “Palestine is witnessing a genocide right now,” it read. “A child is dying every five minutes of the day. Gaza needs …