1 Institute for the Study of War and AEI’s Critical Threats Project 2023
Iran Update, November 16, 2023
Ashka Jhaveri, Andie Parry, Annika Ganzeveld, Peter Mills, Kathryn Tyson, Brian
Carter, and Nicholas Carl
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 continued reconnaissance operations in al Shifa Hospital to uncover Hamas
military infrastructure, according to the IDF. Israel uncovered a tunnel shaft and weapons
during operations there, which is consistent with Israel’s repeated assertions that Hamas uses
humanitarian infrastructure for military activities. The United States reemphasized that Hamas
used al Shifa Hospital as a command node, citing its own intelligence.
2. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the IDF has completed the capture and clearing of
western Gaza City and that the “next phase has begun,” which is consistent with Israeli advances
toward eastern Gaza City. Israel dropped leaflets on four communities east of Khan Younis in
the southern Gaza Strip asking civilians to evacuate.
3. Palestinian fighters attacked Israeli forces 16 times in the West Bank. The Israeli police said that
it foiled an attempted Hamas terror attack near Jerusalem.
4. Iranian-backed fighters, including Lebanese Hezbollah, conducted 11 cross-border attacks into
northern Israel.
5. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq—a coalition of Iranian-backed Iraqi militias—did not claim any
attacks on US forces in the Middle East on November 16. Unspecified Iranian-backed militants
conducted two rocket attacks on a US base in eastern Syria, according to Axis of Resistance-
affiliated and local media. Iranian-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah (KH) issued a
statement threatening the United States.
6. Iranian officials and state media refuted Western reports that Iran will not “directly” enter the
Israel-Hamas war, likely to reassure other Axis of Resistance members of Iran’s continued
support for them. Iran is exploiting the Western media framing that Iran is not already involved
in the war, which is unintentionally obfuscating the role Iran is already playing.
