Israel Hammers Iranian Internal Security Command That Murdered Protestors

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I'm Shannon Bream.

I'm Tom Shalou.

I'm Maria Bartorromo, and this is The Fox News rundown.

Thursday, March 5th, 2026, I'm Jonathan Savage.

With Israel moving to face two of its bombardment of Iran, we take stock of the war so far.

We know the Israelis have targeted a variety of positions across Iran.

They're going after the leadership structure, and also targeting IRGC headquarters and

Baseesh headquarters, not only taking out the military command, but also the ground command

responsible for ordering the crackdown on protesters earlier this year.

This is The Fox News rundown, the U.S. and Israel's strike Iran.

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In just a few of today's developments, the United States Embassy in Kuwait is forced

to suspend operations because of Iranian attacks.

The embassies in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon are close to.

Azerbaijan says it's preparing retaliatory measures after accusing Iran of carrying out

two drone strikes.

Iran denies any involvement, and Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon,

says it's too soon for diplomacy.

Be patient.

We are advancing.

If it's only a matter of time before the rocket fire is minimized and the capabilities

are dismantled, every day the capabilities shrink.

Every hour we, together with the U.S., degrade, destroy, and dismantle the launch sites

and stockpiles.

The Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces says it is moving to the next phase of the

operation against Iran, two sources of told Reuters that we'll see its fighter jets

attacking ballistic missile sites buried deep underground.

The Israelis are still taking incoming Iranian ballistic missile fire.

We're speaking with Trey Yangst, Chief Foreign Correspondent for Fox News reporting from

Tel Aviv.

And it has gotten to be certainly lighter than it was in the early days of this war in

the first 48 hours, but the fire does continue.

There have been at least five separate attacks today that have triggered air raid sirens

across Central Israel, sending the population underground or into safe rooms.

And so this does remain a threat, but the Israeli people also received a new update from

the Army today indicating they can now gather in small groups.

And some places of work will be open for essential jobs and occupations.

So they're starting to slowly but surely lift some of the restrictions for the civilian

population in Israel.

And this is an indication that they are successfully targeting the ballistic missile launching

positions.

Now, we know that the Israeli military is operating in Lebanon against Hezbollah, and

I will turn to that in a moment.

But first, what can you tell us about the strikes Israel has been conducting on Iran in

recent days?

We know the Israelis have targeted a variety of positions across Iran.

They're going after the leadership ship structure and also targeting IRGC headquarters

and Baseesh headquarters, not only taking out the military command, but also the ground

command responsible for ordering the crack down on protesters earlier this year.

President Trump believes 32,000 people were killed.

And so the Israelis and the Americans are looking to dismantle a lot of that system as

well as much as they can from the air.

You know, this is a country that's very large, it's 90 million people.

And so it's challenging.

There are only certain things that can be done from the air, but the bombing campaign

does continue at this hour.

And even the Israeli saying tonight that they've launched yet a 13th round of strikes against

Iran.

When you talk about only so much can be done from the air, does that bring with it a

risk that the aims of this war can't be achieved quite as easily as perhaps the leaders

of the US and Israel would like us to think they can?

Well, it depends on who you're listening to.

The objectives that relate out by the Trump administration are to reduce Iran's ballistic

missile threat, these launching positions, storage and production facilities, to destroy

Iran's navy, to ensure that Iran does not have the ability to create a nuclear weapon.

And to weaken the regime, they are not using the words regime change, certainly not at

this point.

And that's something I think that gets lost in this storyline is that there's a lot

of hope, I think, among the Iranian diaspora and from those who say the regime must go,

that there will be regime change.

But I think that the reality is much more difficult.

And we know that the Iranians have built a mosaic defense structure.

They have the ability to fill the shoes of those who are taken out in air strikes.

And so this isn't going to be as simple as just bombing them into regime change.

There will have to be other components if that is the goal.

But at this point, even the Trump administration is not laying out that objective.

For Israelis, then, is the best hope not regime change, but overall regime perspective

change so that they behave differently in the long run?

For the Israelis, I think the primary objective is to ensure that the ballistic missile threat

is taken care of.

They know that the nuclear program has been decimated.

There is still enriched uranium in the country, but having enriched uranium and having the

ability to create a nuclear weapon are two different things.

The process requires a lot of facilities, and a lot of those facilities were bombed during

the 12-day war during Operation Midnight Hammer last summer.

And so the primary threat is the long-range ballistic missile threat.

But so far, while Israel has taken around 10 fatalities, it's a relatively low number

compared to what the projections were before this conflict began.

There was concern that Iranian missiles would saturate Israeli air defense, and that

simply hasn't happened.

Yes, some of these missiles have slipped past, but across the board, the interception rate

is quite high.

We don't know exactly what it is, but there are far more interceptions than there are impacts.

Iran also presents a short-range threat, doesn't it, with its drones, for example, and

it's firing them in large numbers at multiple countries across the region.

Do we know how much longer Iran can continue its retaliation?

On the short-range front, they can continue for quite a while.

I mean, they have cruise missiles, short-range ballistic missiles.

They have a very advanced and well-produced regionally drone program, and they were selling

drones to the Russians.

And they're able to target Gulf countries like Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, and Kuwait, and

the U.S. forces that are in some of those countries quite easily, just across the Persian

Gulf.

And so that threat will likely last longer than the long-range ballistic missile threat.

But just given the fact that the country is so big and the program is so large, even

once the ballistic missile threat is largely destroyed, you could still see launches here

and there.

I mean, it is a program that's built oftentimes deep underground or into rock, and they're

not going to be able to hit every one of these positions in these opening strikes.

I mean, we're less than a week in, and they've hit many of them.

We understand, according to U.S. central command, that compared to the first day of the

war, and this number came out on Wednesday, the launches are down 86 percent.

And so the short-range threat will remain, and the Gulf countries will actually become

a bigger part of the story as the war develops.

We've been speaking with Trey Yankst, chief foreign correspondent for Fox News reporting

from Tel Aviv.

More after this.

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Now, as I mentioned earlier, Israel is also targeting the Iran-Allied Hezbollah militia

in Lebanon.

Just explain to us what they're doing and what the goals are in that operation.

Yeah, the Israelis are going after the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that they

actually were fighting for the past two years.

And then there was a ceasefire, but they've been striking Hezbollah even during the ceasefire

because they say Hezbollah is preparing for this type of conflict.

And so new evacuation orders were issued Thursday for residents of the southern neighborhood

of Dakhia in Beirut, the Lebanese capital.

And there are hundreds of thousands of people that live there.

But it's a Hezbollah stronghold to Shia majority area.

And the Israelis, the reason they started going after them is because Hezbollah launched

rockets over the border toward the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

The Israelis had been waiting to see if they were getting involved in the war because

they know that this is a very close threat.

Unlike Iran, they are sharing a border with Lebanon.

Explain for us the distinction here because Israel's not war is not with Lebanon, not with

the people of Lebanon.

The people of Lebanon must be suffering, though.

What does the government of Lebanon say about all this?

The government is quite interesting, actually.

They have taken a new approach and they are calling on Hezbollah to stand down.

And that's a big change in all of this.

Previously, Hezbollah was actually really built into the government of Lebanon.

We heard the Prime Minister of Lebanon earlier this week basically said that Hezbollah has

to stand down and they are going to arrest anyone they said today that has ties to the

IRGC of Iran.

And so the Lebanese government is trying to stop this from spiraling out of control, understanding

that the residents of their capital of Beirut are going to pay the highest price.

And Beirut is a mixed city.

Many Shia Muslims in the south of Beirut, but there are also many Lebanese Christians

there as well.

In the last two and a half years, Israel has had wars on many fronts.

Hezbollah is talking about Hamas and Gaza and the 12-day war last June with Iran.

Do things feel different in Israel at this point?

They feel similar to during the war last year, but the fire is actually less intense than

it was.

It's frequent, but in many ways it's less intense because the barrage is coming from

Iran are not as heavy.

They are frequent, but not as heavy, and that's just an indication that they can't launch

dozens of missiles at the same time, or sometimes more than 100 as they had done in the past.

And so the population here is actually adjusted in many ways to war.

They know that there's a price to pay, but they're willing to pay that price because

they feel this will lead to more security and stability for their country in the future.

And true, there will have been Americans trying to get out of Israel in recent days and

it won't have been easy.

What options have they had and are those options improving?

They are.

The State Department is doing a lot to get Americans home from Israel.

And there are ways to leave the country right now.

You could cross to Jordan and fly out from there.

There are some flights going from Amman and others are going to Egypt.

They're going to the South to the Sinai Peninsula and flying out from there or even to Cairo.

And so there are options to get out, but others are here.

And I have talked to some people who are here from other countries and some are waiting

and others are trying to get out where they can't.

Trainings.

Thanks for being on the Fox News rundown.

Thank you.

Have a great day.

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