In the fourth week of Israel’s military operation “Roaring Lion” against Iran, the Israeli military reported by the end of the previous week that it had struck around 7,000 targets in Iran and that Iran’s missile launch rate had allegedly fallen by 90 percent. At the same time, air-raid sirens and impacts continued in Israel: a couple in their seventies died while on their way to a shelter, and the Savidor Merkaz railway station in Tel Aviv was hit directly. Within a 40-hour window, several high-profile targets were also killed, including, according to Israel, Basij commander Reza Solani and Iran’s intelligence minister Esmat Rujani, whom Israel described as the “boss of the regime.” On Saturday evening, March 21, an Iranian missile hit a residential building, injuring an unusually large number of people; an impact in Dimona was also reported, and as the week went on, reports of the use of cluster munitions increased.
There were also new developments on the northern front: on March 23 and 24, the IDF struck a structure in southern Lebanon from which Radwan forces were said to have been operating; at the same time, reports said the Lebanese army had misled the IDF about disarmament in the south. Since the start of the operation, Israel said it had hit more than 3,000 targets linked to Iran’s regime, including two IRGC intelligence command centers, a command center of Iran’s intelligence ministry, weapons storage sites, and other military infrastructure; the Israeli Air Force said it struck more than 50 targets in a single overnight wave, including storage and launch locations for ballistic missiles. On March 25, Iran rejected a 15-point U.S. proposal to end the war as “excessive”; the plan reportedly called, among other things, for a halt to uranium enrichment and an end to funding regional proxies, while Iran in return was said to demand, among other things, that U.S. bases in the Gulf be ruled out. The IDF also stated that it had dropped 15,000 bombs on Iran since the operation began; an Iranian missile landed in Hadera, and the Israel Electric Corporation reported no damage to infrastructure. Israel was preparing, according to reporting from the surrounding context, to intensify its ground offensive in southern Lebanon after rocket fire in the north injured two people and, on Thursday, March 26, 21-year-old Golani Brigade Staff Sergeant Ori Greenberg was killed in combat in southern Lebanon.