National security expert warns from bomb shelter that synchronized attacks mark escalation in regional conflict
Tel Aviv under ballistic missile fire as sirens sound across city
Fox News correspondent Nate Foy reports on sirens sounding across Tel Aviv as explosions can be heard in the distance on ‘The Ingraham Angle.’
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Hezbollah and Iran launched a coordinated strike strategy Tuesday, a national security expert claimed, as reports emerged that deadly cluster munitions were hitting Israel in synchronized attacks.
The developments unfolded on day 11 of Operations Epic Fury and Roaring Lion, the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign targeting Iran, marking a potential escalation in the widening regional conflict.
“Hezbollah has fully joined the war, and it looks like they are now very well coordinated with Iran,” Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital while speaking from his bomb shelter near Tel Aviv.
“Most of Hezbollah’s rockets and drones are launched simultaneously with the Iranian missiles,” he said.
IRAN’S SENIOR CLERICS ‘EXPOSED’ AFTER BUILDING STRIKE IN QOM, SUCCESSION CHOICE LOOMS
Explosions from projectile interceptions by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system over Tel Aviv. (JACK GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images)
Israel confirmed Tuesday that Iran had been firing cluster munitions — adding a complicated and deadly challenge to Israel’s stretched air defenses, The Associated Press reported.
The warheads burst open at high altitudes, scattering dozens of smaller bomblets across a wide area. The smaller bombs, which at night can resemble orange fireballs, are difficult to intercept and have proven lethal.
Fox News correspondent Nate Foy also said despite Israel’s strong air defense, half of the missiles are hard to defend against because half of the missiles are cluster munitions.
“The Iranian use of cluster missiles and the idea that they deliberately target civilians and civil facilities must be considered as a use of non-conventional weapons, and the American-Israeli response must be appropriate,” Michael urged.
Banned by more than 120 nations under the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, the weapons are widely condemned for their broad-area, indiscriminate effects that often result in catastrophic civilian harm.
IRAN PROXIES WAGE WAR ON ISRAEL, THREATEN US INTERESTS AS IRAQ SLAMMED FOR NOT DISARMING THEM
Smoke and dust rise after an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, Lebanon. (Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)
Michael spoke as Reuters reported Hezbollah was applying lessons from its last war with Israel as it prepares for a possible full-scale Israeli invasion and protracted conflict.
It said sources claimed the group was returning to its roots in guerrilla warfare in south Lebanon.
“Operating in small units, fighters from the Iran-backed group are avoiding the use of communication devices that could be at risk of Israeli tapping and are rationing the use of key anti-tank rockets as they engage Israeli troops,” said the sources, familiar with Hezbollah military activities.
Michael also said that the “north of the country, toward the Haifa area, is under heavy bombing.”
Hezbollah terrorists are taking part in cross-border raids, part of a large-scale military exercise, in Aaramta, bordering Israel, on May 21, 2023 ahead of the anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. (Fadel Itani/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“Israeli citizens have to spend most of the time in the shelter rooms as Hezbollah and Iran deliberately target civilians and civilian facilities,” he said.
“Tel Aviv is still under an emergency routine, with sirens continuing and many people spending a lot of time in the bomb shelter rooms,” he added before highlighting that “Israel is a small country and will not be able to continue containing such asymmetry and this type of attrition war.”
As of Tuesday night local time, the IDF said it had launched a wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
This came after the military reiterated its warning to evacuate the area, a Hezbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh.
In a post shared on X, the IDF said: “This is what we’re operating against.”
Reuters sources also claimed much of Hezbollah’s fighting on the ground had been focused so far near the town of Khiyam, near the intersection of Lebanon’s border with Israel and Syria.
This is one area where Hezbollah believes any Israeli land invasion could begin. Hezbollah’s elite Radwan fighters, who withdrew from the south following the 2024 ceasefire, had also returned to the area, it said.
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A man carries shoes from his destroyed house that was hit by Israeli airstrikes hit several houses in Sir al-Gharbiyeh village south Lebanon, Sunday, March, 8, 2026. (Mohammed Zaatari/AP Photo)
“Israel will no doubt take control over a wide territory in south Lebanon, from the international border to the Litani River, in order to establish a security buffer zone,” Michael said.
“This will prevent Hezbollah from attacking the Israeli villages and towns in the north of the country and will intensify the attacks against Hezbollah all over Lebanon,” Michael added.
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“We hope that President Trump will not stop or use the formula he used with the Houthis, declaring victory and leaving the wounded lion incapable of revenge and/or reconstituting itself.”
Meanwhile, an Israeli military official, speaking anonymously under army briefing rules, said Tuesday that roughly half of the projectiles Iran was launching toward Israel were now cluster bombs, The Associated Press said.
Hezbollah, Iran unleash coordinated cluster bomb strikes on Israel in major escalation
Hezbollah and Iran launched a coordinated strike strategy Tuesday, a national security expert claimed, as reports emerged that deadly cluster munitions were hitting Israel in synchronized attacks.
The developments unfolded on day 11 of Operations Epic Fury and Roaring Lion, the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign targeting Iran, marking a potential escalation in the widening regional conflict.
“Hezbollah has fully joined the war, and it looks like they are now very well coordinated with Iran,” Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital while speaking from his bomb shelter near Tel Aviv.
“Most of Hezbollah’s rockets and drones are launched simultaneously with the Iranian missiles,” he said.
Iran’s Senior Clerics ‘Exposed’ After Building Strike In Qom, Succession Choice Looms
Israel confirmed Tuesday that Iran had been firing cluster munitions — adding a complicated and deadly challenge to Israel’s stretched air defenses, The Associated Press reported.
The warheads burst open at high altitudes, scattering dozens of smaller bomblets across a wide area. The smaller bombs, which at night can resemble orange fireballs, are difficult to intercept and have proven lethal.
Fox News correspondent Nate Foy also said despite Israel’s strong air defense, half of the missiles are hard to defend against because half of the missiles are cluster munitions.
“The Iranian use of cluster missiles and the idea that they deliberately target civilians and civil facilities must be considered as a use of non-conventional weapons, and the American-Israeli response must be appropriate,” Michael urged.
Banned by more than 120 nations under the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, the weapons are widely condemned for their broad-area, indiscriminate effects that often result in catastrophic civilian harm.
Iran Proxies Wage War On Israel, Threaten Us Interests As Iraq Slammed For Not Disarming Them
Michael spoke as Reuters reported Hezbollah was applying lessons from its last war with Israel as it prepares for a possible full-scale Israeli invasion and protracted conflict.
It said sources claimed the group was returning to its roots in guerrilla warfare in south Lebanon.
“Operating in small units, fighters from the Iran-backed group are avoiding the use of communication devices that could be at risk of Israeli tapping and are rationing the use of key anti-tank rockets as they engage Israeli troops,” said the sources, familiar with Hezbollah military activities.
Michael also said that the “north of the country, toward the Haifa area, is under heavy bombing.”
“Israeli citizens have to spend most of the time in the shelter rooms as Hezbollah and Iran deliberately target civilians and civilian facilities,” he said.
“Tel Aviv is still under an emergency routine, with sirens continuing and many people spending a lot of time in the bomb shelter rooms,” he added before highlighting that “Israel is a small country and will not be able to continue containing such asymmetry and this type of attrition war.”
As of Tuesday night local time, the IDF said it had launched a wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
This came after the military reiterated its warning to evacuate the area, a Hezbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh.
In a post shared on X, the IDF said: “This is what we’re operating against.”
Reuters sources also claimed much of Hezbollah’s fighting on the ground had been focused so far near the town of Khiyam, near the intersection of Lebanon’s border with Israel and Syria.
This is one area where Hezbollah believes any Israeli land invasion could begin. Hezbollah’s elite Radwan fighters, who withdrew from the south following the 2024 ceasefire, had also returned to the area, it said.
Trump Says Iran Is ‘Running Out Of Launchers’ As Regime Is ‘Being Decimated’
“Israel will no doubt take control over a wide territory in south Lebanon, from the international border to the Litani River, in order to establish a security buffer zone,” Michael said.
“This will prevent Hezbollah from attacking the Israeli villages and towns in the north of the country and will intensify the attacks against Hezbollah all over Lebanon,” Michael added.
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“We hope that President Trump will not stop or use the formula he used with the Houthis, declaring victory and leaving the wounded lion incapable of revenge and/or reconstituting itself.”
Meanwhile, an Israeli military official, speaking anonymously under army briefing rules, said Tuesday that roughly half of the projectiles Iran was launching toward Israel were now cluster bombs, The Associated Press said.
Original article source: Hezbollah, Iran unleash coordinated cluster bomb strikes on Israel in major escalation
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Exclusive-Hezbollah returns to guerrilla roots, awaits Israeli invasion
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FILE PHOTO: Israeli soldiers work on their tank on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border
FILE PHOTO: Israeli soldiers work on their tank on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, amid escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, and amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in northern Israel, March 10, 2026. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File PhotoMore
By Laila Bassam
BEIRUT, March 10 (Reuters) – Lebanon’s Hezbollah is applying lessons from its last war with Israel as it braces for a possible full-scale Israeli invasion and protracted conflict, returning to its roots in guerrilla warfare in south Lebanon, four Lebanese sources said.
Operating in small units, fighters from the Iran-backed group are avoiding the use of communication devices that could be at risk of Israeli tapping, and are rationing the use of key anti-tank rockets as they engage Israeli troops, said the sources, who are familiar with Hezbollah military activities.
Some 15 months since Israel pounded Hezbollah in their last war, the group sparked a new Israeli offensive last week by opening fire to avenge the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Heavily criticised in Lebanon for dragging the country into a war that has displaced 700,000 people, Hezbollah has described its actions as “existential defence”, framing it as a response to Israeli attacks that have continued since a 2024 ceasefire.
While Israel plans for the likely continuation of its Lebanon offensive after the Iran war, the four sources said Hezbollah’s calculations are based on Iran’s clerical leadership surviving the war, leading to a regional ceasefire of which it would be part.
FIGHTING FOCUSED AT INTERSECTION OF SYRIAN, ISRAELI BORDERS
The sources who are familiar with Hezbollah thinking declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. The details of how Hezbollah is operating in the field have not previously been reported.
Hezbollah’s media office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hezbollah, a Shi’ite Muslim group founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982, was the only Lebanese group to keep its weapons at the end of the 1975-90 civil war to fight Israeli troops who occupied the south until withdrawing in 2000.
Hezbollah’s role in driving them out has underpinned its popularity among many Shi’ites, though its decision to enter the Iran war has drawn criticism from within the Shi’ite community.
This war has come at a critical juncture for Hezbollah.
Greatly weakened during the 2024 war, Hezbollah has faced pressure from the Lebanese state to disarm. The Beirut government last week banned Hezbollah’s military activities.
Adding to the pressures on Hezbollah since the 2024 war, its Syrian ally President Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December of that year, severing the main supply route from Iran.
The sources said much of Hezbollah’s fighting on the ground had been focused so far near the town of Khiyam, near the intersection of Lebanon’s border with Israel and Syria.
This is one area where Hezbollah believes any Israeli land invasion could begin.
Reuters reported last week that Hezbollah’s elite Radwan fighters, who withdrew from the south following the 2024 ceasefire, had returned to the area.
ISRAELI SOURCE: HEZBOLLAH STABILIZING RANKS DESPITE BLOWS
An Israeli security source said there was no sign that Hezbollah was looking to de-escalate – quite the opposite. While Israel had eliminated a few of Hezbollah’s very senior commanders, it seemed that the group was managing to stabilize its ranks and make and execute decisions.
Two of the Lebanese sources said four deputies had been appointed for every Hezbollah commander, to ensure continued operations.
The Israeli military says it has struck hundreds of Hezbollah targets since March 2, launching airstrikes in the south, Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
The Israeli military has also sent more soldiers into south Lebanon, where some of its troops had remained since 2024, establishing what it has called forward defensive positions to guard against the risk of Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel.
Two Israeli soldiers have been killed in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has launched daily drone and rocket attacks at Israel.
In 2024, not only did Israel booby-trap hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah, but it also penetrated the group’s private phone network, according to Lebanese officials familiar with Hezbollah’s post-war investigation into breaches.
The sources said Hezbollah was avoiding any devices that could be susceptible to eavesdropping.
(Additional reporting by Jerusalem bureau; Writing by Tom PerryEditing by Gareth Jones)
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Israel says Iran is using cluster munitions. What to know about the weapons
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel says Iran has been firing cluster munitions throughout their 10-day war — adding a complicated and deadly challenge to Israel’s already-stretched air defenses.
The warheads burst open at high altitudes, scattering dozens of smaller bomblets across a wide area. The smaller bombs, which at night can resemble orange fireballs, are difficult to intercept and have proven lethal.
Normally restrictive about releasing information on Iranian hits and damage, Israeli authorities in recent days have sought to educate the public about their dangers, which can persist as unexploded bombs on the ground even after civilians leave shelters. At least three people have been killed, including two at a construction site in central Israel on Tuesday.
Over 120 countries have signed an international convention banning the use of cluster munitions, although Israel, the United States and Iran are among the nations that have not joined the treaty. The weapon has been used for decades in conflicts around the world, including by Israel when it fought the Iran-allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in 2006.
Here’s what to know about cluster munitions:
The bomblets scatter and kill indiscriminately
After what’s called a parent munition is launched, it releases smaller submunitions at an altitude of 7-10 kilometers (4-6 miles). These bomblets scatter across a large area, from several hundred meters (yards) to several kilometers (miles), trading precision for coverage.
Critics worldwide argue that cluster munitions kill or maim indiscriminately, with unexploded bomblets remaining dangerous long after their use. In Israel, they can be especially dangerous because most of the missiles have been aimed at its densely populated center.
“Cluster bombs don’t create real damage to buildings, only people,” said Yehoshua Kalisky, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies.
Tough to shoot down
An Israeli military official, speaking anonymously under army briefing rules, said Tuesday that roughly half of the projectiles Iran was launching toward Israel had been cluster munitions.
Israel’s Arrow missile-defense system has done a good job intercepting incoming ballistic missiles, Kalisky said. But if cluster munitions are released before the missile is destroyed, there is little that can be done.
Israel’s Iron Dome system is geared toward intercepting smaller rockets fired from short ranges and lower altitudes. But it isn’t designed to destroy the clusters once they’ve dispersed into dozens of bomblets, Kalisky added.
Unlike heavier explosives, the bomblets — often weighing less than 3 kilograms (7 pounds) — are most dangerous to targets like cars, storefronts or people caught outside shelters.
“They pose a particular threat to the civilian population both during and after use, with victims often including a high proportion of children,” according to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
The submunitions fail to explode more often than other kinds of warheads. Unexploded ordnance can act like a land mine, detonating later and killing indiscriminately.
The Open Source Munitions Portal, which authenticates publicly sourced images of munitions worldwide, has published several images of unexploded submunitions found in Israel this week. It also verified images of Israeli submunitions being used in Lebanon last year. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, declined to comment directly on the allegation, but pointed to a post on the military’s Substack, which noted that cluster bombs can be used against military targets but not civilian areas.
Iran has used them frequently
Most of the damage in Israel has been caused by larger Iranian missiles, but Iran has been using cluster munitions on a “nearly daily basis,” Shoshani said. He says Iran fired similar projectiles during the 12-day war in June.
The military said the Iranian warheads contain between 20 and 24 bomblets with explosives weighing up to 5 kilograms (11 pounds).
The Israeli military’s Home Front Command has distributed flyers warning residents not to touch unexploded submunitions. A public service announcement from police also warned people not to touch anything they see and to call authorities instead.
What Iran is using
According to the Missile Defense Project at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, Iran said in 2017 that its Khorramshahr medium-range ballistic missile could carry multiple warheads. The missiles are the largest of Iran’s submunition-dispersing arsenal. Iran also has submunition-equipped shorter range Zolfaghar missiles.
Cluster munitions, including those seen in Associated Press video flying westward toward Israel, can look like falling fireballs — an effect caused by the friction of reentering the atmosphere.
N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of Armament Research Services, said little open-source information exists about Iran’s cluster munitions beyond state television reports of leaders touring missile factories and videos from military exercises. But videos showing them used last week indicate that some Iranian missiles carrying cluster munition warheads are designed to open at high altitude, scattering them across an area far larger than most military targets.
Design components that disperse them at such heights — including a protective coating on the submunitions that can withstand the heat of atmospheric reentry — appear to show they were built for far less precise use than cluster munitions seen in other conflicts.
“The design seems to scatter submunitions so widely as to suggest it was designed purely as a weapon of terror, scattering its explosive cargo indiscriminately over a wide area,” Jenzen-Jones said.
In July 2025, after the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, Amnesty International said Iran’s “deliberate use of such inherently indiscriminate weapons is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”
Broadly banned but still used
Cluster munitions — including those more targeted than Iran’s — are not illegal but are barred by the Geneva Conventions for use in civilian areas. They’re also banned under recent international agreements signed by more than 120 nations.
Cluster munitions were first used by Nazi Germany, when it dropped “butterfly bombs” on the United Kingdom in World War II. The U.S. has used various kinds in Vietnam, Laos, Iraq and Afghanistan, and provided cluster munitions to Ukraine. Russia was accused of using cluster bombs in its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a charge Moscow denied.
During a 2006 war in Lebanon with the militant group Hezbollah, the U.N. estimated some 30% to 40% of Israeli cluster bombs failed to explode, leaving southern Lebanon littered with hundreds of thousands of bomblets.
The U.S. State Department said Israel likely used American-made cluster bombs in civilian areas during the 2006 war, after U.N. demining teams found unexploded bomblets in hundreds of locations.
Israel is not using cluster bombs currently, according to a military official who spoke on condition of anonymity under the military’s briefing rules.
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Metz reported from Ramallah. West Bank. Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv contributed.
