1 Institute for the Study of War and AEI’s Critical Threats Project 2023
Iran Update, November 19, 2023
Ashka Jhaveri, Brian Carter, Andie Parry, Amin Soltani, and Nicholas Carl
Information Cutoff: 2:00pm 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. The Washington Post reported that Israel and Hamas are nearing an agreement for a five-day pause in
fighting.
2. Israel published CCTV footage showing Hamas militia fighters taking hostages to al Shifa Hospital during
the October 7 attack. The IDF uncovered a tunnel system underneath al Shifa Hospital, which is consistent
with Israel’s repeated assertions that Hamas uses humanitarian infrastructure for military activities.
3. Israeli forces continued their advance from the coast eastward into Gaza City.
4. The al Qassem Brigades conducted a complex attack on an Israeli combat outpost in the Nasr neighborhood
of Gaza City.
5. Palestinian militia fighters engaged Israeli forces in six small-arms clashes across the West Bank.
6. Iranian-backed militants, including Lebanese Hezbollah, conducted 21 cross-border attacks, including at
least one infiltration, into northern Israel.
7. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq—a coalition of Iranian-backed Iraqi militias—claimed that it launched a one-
way attack drone targeting US forces at al Harir airbase, Erbil province, Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
8. Houthi fighters hijacked an Israeli-owned, Japanese-operated freighter transiting the Red Sea.
9. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei visited the IRGC Aerospace Force permanent exhibition at the
Ashura Aerospace Science and Technology University in Tehran.
10. Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian held a phone call with his Russian counterpart,
Sergei Lavrov, to discuss the Israel–Hamas war.
