Israelis spend Passover under unrelenting missile & rocket fire from Iran, Lebanon & Yemen

Peloni:  As if to remind us that we have no choice but victory over our enemies.

IDF strikes in Iran to thwart missile fire, kills some 40 Hezbollah terrorists

All Israel News Staff | Published: April 2, 2026

Millions of Israelis spent the Passover holiday going back and forth to their shelters every few hours, as the Iranian regime, Hezbollah, and the Houthis markedly stepped up their attacks against Israel from Wednesday to Thursday evening.

Despite over 100 missile and rocket attacks, there were relatively few reports of injuries and no significant damage, as IDF air defenses intercepted most projectiles.

The symbolic peak of the attacks came on Thursday evening, when Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen launched nearly simultaneous attacks, without causing injuries or damage.

The heaviest fire over the holiday came from Lebanon, where Hezbollah launched approximately 150 rockets at Israel since Wednesday evening.

The IDF even noted that this only represented around a third of all rockets launched, with most attacks targeting the Israeli troops operating in southern Lebanon.

The rocket attacks primarily struck towns near the border. Two men were wounded when a rocket hit a building in Kiryat Shmona. An empty kindergarten was damaged in Nahariya and a McDonald’s restaurant near Kibbutz Ma’ayan Baruch was also damaged.

Israeli strikes from the air, sea and land in Lebanon have eliminated more than 40 Hezbollah terrorists. “In the past 24 hours, the Israeli Air Force struck dozens of headquarters, weapons storage facilities, launch sites, and anti-tank missile positions. The Israeli Navy also conducted a precise strike targeting a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in southern Lebanon,” the IDF reported.

“As part of the ground operations, IDF soldiers from the 91st Division identified a Hezbollah terrorist cell and eliminated it in a rapid operational response. In addition, the soldiers dismantled dozens of infrastructure sites, including observation posts and anti-tank missile launch positions.”

According to Kan News, the IDF estimated that the goal of establishing a presence on the “anti-missile line,” the area from which Hezbollah terrorists have launched hundreds of attacks with anti-tank missiles in a direct line of fire, will be completed within about a week.

However, Defense Minister Israel Katz said earlier this week that the IDF will create a “security zone” that not only reaches 8 km (about 5 miles) into Lebanon, but rather stretches all the way to the Litani River, which is around 30 km (18 miles) from the border in most areas.

The Iranian regime notably increased its rate of fire starting Wednesday evening, launching around 20 missiles, half of which were intercepted and half of which fell in open areas.

In the evening, a missile struck Petah Tikva, without causing injuries or damage.

The Israeli Air Force reported carrying out approximately 20 waves of strikes on Wednesday evening, targeting around 50 ballistic missile launch and storage sites with more than 140 munitions in an effort to curb escalating missile attacks.

Amid the strikes, the IDF said that an “F-35i fighter jet detected a ballistic missile launch in a ballistic missile storage site. After the identification, the launcher was struck, and ballistic missile launch attacks against the State of Israel were thwarted.”

In other attack sorties flown by the air force, jets struck a central headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Tehran, which was used “for managing budgets for security bodies and funding military and terror activities worldwide.”

The IDF also confirmed an earlier strike this week that killed Jamshid Eshaqi, the commander of Iran’s Oil Headquarters. The unit was “an integral part of the regime’s armed forces, enabling the continuation of their activities and military buildup through profits from oil sales,” the military said.

“In addition, Eshaqi worked to allocate funds for financing Iran’s terror proxies across the Middle East, most notably the Hezbollah terror organization and the Houthi terror regime.”

Another strike in the area of Kermanshah eliminated Makram Atimi, commander of a central missile unit in western Iran.