1 Instute for the Study of War and AEI’s Crical Threats Project 2023
Iran Update, November 20, 2023
Andie Parry, Ashka Jhaveri, Johanna Moore, Peter Mills,
Annika Ganzeveld, Amin Soltani, and Brian Carter
Information Cutoff: 2:00 pm EST
The Iran Update provides insights into Iranian and Iranian-sponsored activities abroad that
undermine regional stability and threaten US forces and interests. It also covers events and trends
that affect the stability and decision-making of the Iranian regime. The Critical Threats Project
(CTP) at the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) provides
these updates regularly based on regional events. For more on developments in Iran and the region,
see our interactive map of Iran and the Middle East.
Note: CTP and ISW have refocused the update to cover the Israel-Hamas war. The new sections
address developments in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria, as well as noteworthy
activity from Iran’s Axis of Resistance. We do not report in detail on war crimes because these
activities are well-covered in Western media and do not directly affect the military operations we
are assessing and forecasting. We utterly condemn violations of the laws of armed conflict and the
Geneva Conventions and crimes against humanity even though we do not describe them in these
reports.
Click here to see CTP and ISW’s interactive map of Israeli ground operations. This map is updated
daily alongside the static maps present in this report.
Key Takeaways:
1. Israeli forces advanced to the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya bordering northern
Jabalia refugee camp on November 20. They clashed with Palestinian militia fighters
along the western border of Jabalia refugee camp and neighborhood.
2. Hamas and other Palestinian militia fighters attacked the IDF behind the Israeli forward
line of advance in the Zaytoun area in the middle of the Gaza Strip, which is consistent
with the nature of clearing operations.
3. Palestinian militia fighters engaged Israeli forces in eight small arms clashes across the
West Bank on November 20. Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
continue to call for attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians in the West Bank.
4. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq—a coalition of Iranian-backed Iraqi militias—claimed a
one-way drone attack targeting US forces at Ain al Assad Airbase in Iraq on November 20.
5. Unspecified Iranian-backed militia leaders in Syria met to discuss plans for responding to
US airstrikes in the region.
