Donald Trump and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (Reuters/File)
UPDATES: US-Israel Wars, Day 75 — Trump Rejects Iran Proposal
UPDATE 0713 GMT:
Indicating another day of attacks across southern Lebanon despite a nominal ceasefire, the Israel Defense Forces issued evacuation warnings for seven villages this morning.
The IDF ordered residents of Maashouq, Jarjouaa, Yanouh, Burj al-Shamali, Hallousiyyeh al-Faouqa, Debaal, and Aabbasiyyeh to evacuate at least a kilometer away.
It said Hezbollah fired several rockets at Israeli troops and launched a drone.
On Tuesday, Israeli strikes killed 13 people in the south, including two rescuers responding to an earlier attack in the city of Nabatieh and a wounded person they tried to save.
Noting Israel’s “complete disregard for all international norms”, Lebanon’s Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine told a press conference on Tuesday that since the supposed ceasefire on April 16, 380 people have been killed and 1,122 wounded.
The toll includes 39 women and 22 children.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Countering the public claims of Trump officials, US intelligence assesses that Iran has restored access to most of its missile sites, launchers, and underground facilities.
The analysts find Tehran has regained operational access to 30 of the 33 missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians can use mobile launchers inside the sites to move missiles to other locations. In some cases, they can launch missiles directly from launchpads in the facilities.
Iran still has about 70% of its mobile launchers across the country and around 70% of its pre-war missile stocks, including ballistic missiles and a smaller supply of cruise missiles. Around 90% of underground missile storage and launch facilities are “partially or fully operational”.
Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have proclaimed that Iran’s missile capacity is “decimated” and “no longer” a threat. Trump said on March 9, only 10 days into the US-Israel War, that Iran’s missiles were “down to a scatter” and the Islamic Republic had “nothing left in a military sense.” Mr. Hegseth declared on April 8 that the US had “decimated Iran’s military and rendered it combat-ineffective for years to come”.
Officials said the US military, with limited stocks of bunker-busting munitions, chose to seal off entrances to many sites rather destroying all of the missiles inside. The operation yielded mixed results, amid limited supplies of “bunker buster” munitions and the Pentagon’s need to preserve some for potential wars with North Korea or China.
The US has fired around 1,100 long-range stealth cruise missiles during the war, almost the entire American stockpile. It has launched more than 1,000 Tomahawk missiles, about 10 times the number procured in a year.
