Northern Israel under fire as Hezbollah attacks continue

Northern Israel under fire as Hezbollah attacks continue; US warns Iran holds major missile arsenal

ynet Global

Missile fire from Lebanon continued overnight into northern Israel, triggering sirens in Safed and communities across the Galilee, as fighting along the northern border showed no sign of easing despite a ceasefire with Iran entering its fourth day.

Hezbollah maintained its attacks toward Israel’s north following earlier strikes in Kiryat Shmona and interceptions reported over Acre and Karmiel. Israeli forces remain engaged in Lebanon, where an IDF reservist non-commissioned officer was seriously wounded by an explosive drone strike.

At the same time, reports from Gaza indicated casualties in an Israeli strike. Medical teams in the enclave said at least six people were killed and others wounded after the Israeli military targeted a police checkpoint in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Reuters.

Amid the regional tensions, U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that Iran still retains a significant missile capability. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal citing American officials familiar with the latest intelligence, Iran continues to possess thousands of ballistic missiles and retains the ability to reactivate launchers stored in underground facilities.

Officials said more than half of Iran’s missile launchers were destroyed, damaged or buried during the war, and that its overall missile stockpile has been reduced by roughly half. Still, Iran is believed to maintain thousands of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles that can be deployed from concealed or underground sites.

Iran is also believed to retain a limited number of cruise missiles capable of targeting vessels in the Persian Gulf or U.S. forces in the region if negotiations collapse. Concerns are growing in Washington that Iran could use the current ceasefire to rebuild parts of its missile arsenal.

Diplomatic efforts are underway to prevent further escalation. An Iranian delegation led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad ahead of potential talks with the United States. Iranian state media reported that the delegation is expected to meet Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and that negotiations with Washington could begin later Saturday if Tehran’s preconditions are met.

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China plans to deliver air defense systems to Iran in coming weeks, US intelligence reveals

China plans to deliver air defense systems to Iran in coming weeks, US intelligence reveals

SHOSHANA BAKER, REUTERS

US intelligence indicates China is  preparing to deliver new air defense systems to Iran  within the next few weeks, CNN reported late on Friday, citing three  people familiar with recent intelligence assessments.

According to intelligence outlined in the CNN report, Beijing is preparing to transfer shoulder-fired anti-air missile systems known as MANPADs.

These systems pose an asymmetric threat to low-flying US military aircraft, as demonstrated during the five-week war, and they could continue to do so if the ceasefire breaks down.

Two sources informed CNN that there are signs Beijing is attempting to route shipments of the weaponry through third countries to conceal their true origin.

The report also highlighted how Iran might be using the ceasefire to replenish certain weapon systems with assistance from key foreign partners.

Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump announced that imports from countries supplying military weapons to Iran will face immediate 50% tariffs with no exemptions. This announcement came just hours after he agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Tehran.

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Iran’s secret revolution: the crown prince who says Christianity is exploding underground

Iran’s secret revolution: the crown prince who says Christianity is exploding underground

Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz

Reza Pahlavi, the son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, has been working for most of his life to replace the oppressive Islamist regime of Iran. Pahlavi walked onto the stage at Liberty University this week and told thousands of young American Christians something the Islamic Republic desperately does not want the world to know: the faith it has spent 46 years trying to eradicate is not dying in Iran. It is multiplying. The nation that once sheltered the Jewish people under Cyrus and helped the Jews return from exile and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem is today sheltering the Christian faith in its own basements and living rooms, at mortal risk, and its crown prince came to Lynchburg, Virginia, to bear witness.

Pahlavi is the son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, whose monarchy was toppled by the Islamist revolution of 1979. He has lived in exile ever since, training as the youngest fighter pilot in Iranian history at Reese Air Force Base in Texas before studying political science at the University of Southern California. For more than four decades, he has been the most prominent voice of Iran’s opposition, uniting his people from exile. This week, Liberty University President Dondi Costin introduced him as “a freedom fighter.”

Pahlavi’s cause has become a light in the darkness of despair that has swallowed his country.  Between January 8 and 9 alone, more than 30,000 protesters were killed by the regime. Women were beaten to death in the streets. Students were dragged from classrooms and executed. Families were forced to pay for the bullets that killed their own children. The youngest victim whose name he read aloud was three years old.

For 33 days, 90 million Iranians lived without internet, deliberately blinded by a government trying to strangle a revolution before the world could see it. 

“We speak often in this world about injustice. You are charged by your professors and your pastors to fight against it. But what is happening in Iran demands a stronger word; evil,” he told the students. Because what else do you call a system that murders its own children? What else do you call a regime that wages war both on enemies abroad and on its own people? In recent years, tens of thousands of Iranians have been killed in wave after wave of repression.”

Pahlavi went on to describe some of the horrors in detail, charging the students to support the fight against the Islamist regime. He framed the conflict as a Christian imperative. 

“For those of you grounded in faith, there is another truth,” he said. “In Iran today, Christianity is not fading. It is rising quietly, powerfully underground. In homes, in whispers, in hidden gatherings, Iranians are finding faith at great cost. Pastors are imprisoned. Bibles are confiscated. Believers are hunted. Converts are threatened with execution. Families are torn apart. But still they gather.

“Still, they pray. Still, they believe,” Pahlavi said. “Because faith that survives persecution is unbreakable. Because the light shines brightest in the darkest places.” 

Christianity is indeed growing in Iran. Multiple ministry organizations tracking Iran report it has one of the fastest-growing Christian populations on earth, with millions of secret believers meeting in homes across the country. The regime knows it, and the arrests and executions of Iranian Christians have accelerated in recent years precisely because the authorities are terrified of what they cannot stop.

“You study stories of persecution in history,” Pahlavi told the students. “Christians have often faced this. In Iran, they are happening every day. There was a time when Iran stood for something very different. Over 2500 years ago, Cyrus the Great, a Persian king, freed the Jewish people from captivity. He restored their rights. He respected their faith. He is remembered in scripture not as a tyrant but as a liberator. This is Iran’s true legacy. A nation of tolerance, a nation of dignity, a nation that once stood on the side of freedom.”

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The Confusion That Is Lebanon: A Weapon Against Israel

The Confusion That Is Lebanon: A Weapon Against Israel—And A Warning To The West

Cameron Joyner

From Biblical to Modern Times

The name Lebanon (Hebrew: Levanon) refers to the mountain chain north of Israel and comes from the Hebrew word lavan (“white”), for the country’s snow-covered peaks. Like many high places, Mount Lebanon was linked to pagan worship and was believed to be the dwelling of Baal, the Canaanite storm god associated with fertility (scholars identify him with Rimmon in 2 Kings 5:18).

The region’s ancient influence on Israel was mixed: King Hiram of Tyre allied with King Solomon, supplying materials for the First Temple (1 Ki. 5:1–12), while Jezebel of Sidon married King Ahab, drawing the northern kingdom of Israel into Baal worship (16:30–33) during the days of the divided kingdom.

From the 1st century until 1918, Lebanon, like Israel, was ruled by virtually the same successive foreign powers. Its religious diversity and constant imperial transitions made the region turbulent, with even peaceful periods fragile. Under Ottoman rule (1516–1918), Lebanon’s communities—Maronite Catholic, Druze, Sunni and Shia Muslim, and Jewish—remained distinct, rather than assimilated.

During World War I, the Ottomans sided with Germany against Britain, France, and Czarist Russia. By late 1918, British forces had advanced into the Levant from Egypt; and Ottoman control collapsed. The Treaty of Sèvres (1920) ended Ottoman rule, placing Lebanon and Syria under the French Mandate. What are today Israel and Jordan fell under the British Mandate, as secretly arranged in the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement.

France created Greater Lebanon to secure a safe haven for Catholics; but by including coastal cities like Tripoli, Sidon, and Tyre, it ensured a fragile demographic balance. The French favored the Catholics, who only slightly outnumbered the Muslims.

The Rise of Hezbollah

The 1979 Iranian Revolution had a ripple effect on Lebanon. Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini exported his revolutionary ideology by backing Lebanese Shia groups, leading to the creation of Hezbollah in the early 1980s. In 1982, Israel returned to Lebanon in Operation Peace for Galilee (the First Lebanon War), aiming to expel the PLO and install a pro-Israel government. Although the PLO was expelled, Hezbollah filled the void.

From 1985 to 2000, Israel maintained a security zone in southern Lebanon, supported by the South Lebanon Army. The 1989 Taif Agreement ended Lebanon’s Civil War, revising the National Pact’s 6-to-5 parliamentary ratio to an even 1-to-1 split between Muslims and Catholics. It allowed Hezbollah to remain armed yet forced other militias to disarm.

In 2000, Israel withdrew from its widely criticized security zone. Hezbollah claimed victory and continued its anti-Israel provocation. Cross-border raids persisted, prompting Israeli airstrikes. In 2006, Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers, triggering the Second Lebanon War, a 34-day conflict with heavy casualties and destruction.

From 2006 to October 7, 2023, Lebanon and Israel remained technically at war, with no diplomatic ties. Hezbollah expanded its arsenal, while Israel targeted Hezbollah and Iranian assets. Lebanon’s government remained too weak to control Hezbollah, which operated autonomously within the country’s borders.

October 7 to Present

Since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Israel has faced an escalating conflict with Hezbollah along its Lebanese border. Hezbollah gradually intensified rocket, drone, and missile strikes in solidarity with Hamas, drawing Israel into a two-front war. With Iran’s blessing, Hezbollah expanded its reach deeper into Israeli cities, while Israel responded with extensive airstrikes, covert raids, and limited ground incursions into southern Lebanon.

This confrontation reflects Iran’s broader regional strategy and Hezbollah’s dual role as militia and political actor, complicating Lebanon’s fragile domestic politics. The fighting displaced thousands in northern Israel, strained military resources, and further destabilized Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces have carried out thousands of strikes on Hezbollah targets, dismantling tunnels and weapons caches. In September 2024, Israel executed a brilliant plan to remotely detonate Hezbollah communication devices—hindering the terror group. Ten days later, Israel finally eliminated Hezbollah’s longest-serving leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Israel eventually pushed Hezbollah forces back, though sporadic clashes continue.

Early in 2026, Lebanon began to distance itself from Hezbollah, conceding Israel’s right to strike the terror organization if it continued to refuse to disarm. The shift provided hope that Lebanon may pursue self-preservation over allegiance to the fanatical terrorists who have long sabotaged the nation.

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After the Saturday People, the Sunday People

After the Saturday People, the Sunday People

Hugh Fitzgerald

The Muslims have been going after the Jews in what is now Israel even before the founding of the Jewish state. For according to Islamic doctrine, any territory that was once possessed by Muslims must forever remain a part of dar al-Islam. But it is not just the Jews whom Muslims are after; the slogan sometimes heard in the Middle East is “after the Saturday people, the Sunday people.” That is, “first we deal with the Jews, and then with the Christians.” More on this menace to the West can be found here: “Christians, mark my words: after the Jews, Islamists will come for you,” by Giulio Meotti, Israel National News, April 1, 2026:

Zero political outrage, zero clerical mobilization, and zero digital uproar for the Christians killed in Nigeria on Palm Sunday. Where are the fiery sermons, the hashtags, and the worldwide denunciations?

The Kotel, holiest place for Jews in Jerusalem, the closest point to what remains of the Temple, always crowded, day and night, has been empty for a month. Empty because of the war and Iranian missiles. But it seems that an antisemitic missile is not a missile, but a message of peace.

Thus, Israel closing the Church of Sepulchre to Cardinal Pizzaballa out of fear of Iranian attacks caused more noise and scandal than the Iranian missile that fell near the Sepulchre a few days earlier.

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