Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
WARS ON IRAN, LEBANON – NEWS & HEADLINES:
Why is If Americans Knew covering the war on Iran? It can not be overemphasized that Israel has been the impetus behind US policies and actions vis-a-vis Iran for years. This is especially true right now, under Donald Trump. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing the US to attack Iran for decades.
The American people have made clear that they do not want to go to war with Iran, but Israel partisans and the Israel lobby use their massive political clout to bring about whatever is beneficial to Israel – including putting the US military in harm’s way. For more background on Israel’s role in American wars, watch IAK’s short film, “The Israeli Hit List.”
DEATH TOLL (all numbers are tentative):
- 13 US troops have been killed since the war on Iran began, according to US Central Command (CENTCOM), 200 injured.
- In Israel, 18 people have been killed and 3,727 injured.
- In Iran, 1,444 people have reportedly been killed since the conflict began (240 children).
- In Lebanon, at least 1,001 people have been killed (at least 118 of them children, 79 women, and 40 healthcare workers).
- In other Arab states (including Palestine), at least 90 people have been killed.
IRAN:
Iran says it will show ‘zero restraint’ if energy infrastructure is targeted again: Foreign minister issues warning after Israeli attack on South Pars gasfield and as Qatar reels from retaliatory strike.
Iran FM says end of war must include guarantees against future attacks
Iran says over 70,000 civilian sites damaged in US-Israeli attacks: US-Israeli strikes injured more than 18,000 civilians in Iran, says head of Iranian Red Crescent Society.
U.S./TRUMP ADMINISTRATION:
US deploying additional warships, 8,000 service members to Middle East: Report
RELATED: Trump says no plans to deploy troops to Mideast
Strike on Iran gasfield exposes US-Israel rift as Trump says he did not know: US president distances himself from attack that has angered Gulf allies.
No timeframe for ending US war against Iran, says Pete Hegseth: “It will be at the president’s choosing, ultimately, where we say, ‘Hey, we’ve achieved what we need to.’” Commenting on the $200B the Pentagon wants for funding the war effort, he said, “I think that number could move. Obviously it takes money to kill bad guys. We’re going back to Congress and folks there to ensure that we’re properly funded for what’s been done, for what we may have to do in the future.”
‘No chance for dissent’: Joe Kent describes lead up to Iran war: Kent resigned this week as head of the National Counterterrorism Center in protest of the Iran war, blaming Israel for pushing Washington into the attack, and stating that many of the “key decision makers were not allowed to come and express their opinion to the president” before the decision to strike.
Pentagon’s $200B Iran war request faces steep pushback from Congress, taxpayers
ENERGY WAR:
Oil prices shoot past $119 as Iran retaliates on Gulf energy assets following Israeli escalation
Qatar says Iran ‘wiped out’ 17 percent of LNG export capacity, putting long-term contracts at risk of force majeure: Iran’s retaliatory strike on the Ras Laffan energy facility in Qatar resulted in $20 billion in losses.
Iranian missile hits Haifa [Israel] oil refinery causing fires, power outage
ISRAEL & IRAN:
ISRAEL’S WAR ON LEBANON:
Israel assault kills 1,000 in Lebanon, one million people displaced: Over 1,000 killed, including 118 children, and 1 million displaced as Israel’s assault on Lebanon intensifies and ceasefire calls grow.
The Gods must be cruel: Inside Israel’s psychological warfare campaign in Lebanon: Israel is waging a campaign of psychological warfare in Beirut by projecting godlike power from the skies, raining down bombs that mete out death and dropping leaflets vowing that Beirut and Gaza will share in the same fate.
Under Cover of War, Israel’s Right Pushes to Expand Borders – and Settle Lebanon: Amid war with Iran, what was once considered a far-fetched initiative has turned into a systematic campaign supported by lawmakers and the right-wing press: expansion of Israel’s northern border as far as the Litani River.
RT journalists injured by direct Israeli strike during report from south Lebanon: A British journalist and Lebanese cameraman were apparently targeted by an Israeli warplane just one day after Israel killed a Lebanese journalist from Al Manar TV. The missile hit the ground just meters away in today’s attack.
MORE ON IRAN WAR:
Oman claims Israel pushed US into Iran war when deal was possible: Foreign minister says Israel convinced Donald Trump to make ‘grave miscalculation’ of waging war on Iran.
NEWS & HEADLINES FROM GAZA:
(For some basic info on the Palestine-Israel conflict, go here. For more critical context, skim this, this, and this. To read about a remarkable but underreported, 20-month-long peaceful protest in Gaza against Israel, go here.
While a “ceasefire” is ostensibly in place, Israel has continued its assault on Gaza without interruption. If Americans Knew considers the war to be ongoing, and in its 882nd day. Since the “ceasefire” began on October 11, Israel has killed at least 680 Palestinians. Over 1,813 have been injured. Death toll figures are tentative. Israel has so far violated the 11 October ceasefire deal in Gaza at least 1,620 times (as of Feb. 1, 2026). More statistics below.
Three Palestinians were killed and another was critically wounded, Thursday, in two separate Israeli airstrikes east of Gaza City.
Israel reopened the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Thursday for limited Palestinian movement under strict restrictions after a 20-day closure.
Food shortages return to Gaza as Israel tightens aid restrictions under the cover of its war on Iran: Israel’s tightened restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran have led to shortages of basic necessities and an astronomical rise in prices, raising fears of a return to famine.
NEWS & HEADLINES FROM THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM:
Every day, Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem endure dozens of incidents like the ones below, at the hands of Israeli soldiers and/or settlers. For background on the West Bank, read this and this. For information on the significance of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, read this and this.)
Israel bans Eid prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, citing security restrictions: Occupied East Jerusalem enters Muslim holiday in sorrow as Old City falls silent, shops shuttered.
RELATED: Israeli forces arrest Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement, in occupied Jerusalem
Settlers drove an entire village into exile. Palestinians say the state is keeping them away: After Jewish extremists attacked Khallet a-Sidra in January, all the residents fled. Now the IDF is barring them from returning, while their tormenters begin assaulting town next door.
Israeli Forces Launch Broad West Bank Invasions, Abduct Dozens
Colonizers, Soldiers Attack Communities Across West Bank
Palestinian Christian town in West Bank faces rising settler incursions, priest says: Father Bashar Fawadleh said attacks are expanding beyond the town’s eastern areas. In the latest incident, Israeli police took an hour to respond, and settlers returned shortly after being removed.
NEWS & HEADLINES FROM ISRAEL:
(Israel is a tiny country, about the size of New Jersey, with a population smaller than the US state of Georgia – about 10 million (of which about 20 percent are Palestinians), yet it is in the news constantly. As has been demonstrated again and again, however, mainstream media rarely covers Israel accurately. IAK gets the facts – sometimes from Israeli media sites, where we can get a glimpse inside this country that is rife with turmoil and contradictions, and that receives $63 million a day from America.)
Why soaring Israeli morale over the war on Iran exposes deeper delusion: As the weapons industry celebrates and polls show renewed public optimism, Israel’s aggression across the region reveals an addiction to violence that no military victory can cure.
US Sen. Sanders moves to block $660M in US bomb sales to Israel‘: Last thing in the world that American taxpayers need to do right now is to provide 22,000 new bombs’ to Israel, says Sanders.
Israel Moves to Bar Zohran Mamdani’s Wife, Citing pro-Palestinian Social Media Activity: An Israeli ministry alleged that New York City Mayor’s wife Rama Duwaji’s past social media activity and pro-Palestinian stance fuel antisemitism. She has not indicated plans to visit Israel, and her husband did not commit during the campaign to visiting the country.
MORE NEWS & HEADLINES:
Joe Kent hints to Tucker Carlson that Israel may have killed Charlie Kirk to stoke Iran war: “When one of President Trump’s closest advisers, who is vocally advocating for us to not go to war with Iran and for us to rethink, at least, our relationship with the Israelis, and then he’s suddenly publicly assassinated and we’re not allowed to ask any questions about that, it’s a data point,” Kent told Carlson.
ICYMI, A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
Hell No’: Pentagon Wants Over $200 Billion to Fund Trump’s Illegal Iran War
Israel Strikes World’s Largest Natural Gas Field in Iran – Did US approve?
Four Palestinian women killed during Iranian missile attack in West Bank
The Democratic Nat’l Committee’s Kneejerk Backing of Israel Is Political and Moral Failure
(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- Trump: Israel attacked Iranian gas field without US knowledge. No more such attacks!
- America’s friends must help extricate it from an unlawful war
- Democratic Nat’l Committee’s Kneejerk Backing of Israel Is Political and Moral Failure
- Major revelations from former counterterrorism chief Joe Kent’s extensive interview
- More than half of Palestinian child detainees have no charges
- Grieving Parents in Iran Spend Every Night at the Graves of Their Children, Killed by U.S. Strike
- How ignorance, misunderstanding and obfuscation ended Iran nuclear talks
- Israeli media reports grotesque settler attack in West Bank
- UK security adviser attended US-Iran talks and judged deal was within reach
- Tucker Carlson says ‘neocons’ will try to destroy Joe Kent over resignation
- Trump’s counterterrorism chief, whose own wife was killed by ISIS, quits over Iran War saying Tehran posed ‘no imminent threat’
- Here’s what US could fund instead of Bibi’s war on Iran
- War on Iran: These are the heritage sites devastated by US and Israeli attacks
- Four news stories from Israeli media that illustrate Israeli “justice”
