1 Instute for the Study of War and AEI’s Crical Threats Project 2023
Iran Update, November 9, 2023
Ashka Jhaveri, Peter Mills, Kathryn Tyson, Brian Carter, Amin Soltani, 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 advanced to a Hamas security headquarters in the northwestern Gaza Strip.
2. Israeli forces conducted clearing operations west of Jabaliya city in the northwestern Gaza
Strip.
3. Hamas and other Palestinian militia fighters are continuing their attacks against the IDF
behind the Israeli forward line of advance, which is consistent with the nature of clearing
operations.
4. Palestinian militias launched the fewest number of indirect fire attacks into Israel since the
Israel-Hamas war began.
5. Palestinian militia fighters clashed with Israeli forces six times in the West Bank.
6. The Lions’ Den claimed its first attacks in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war began.
The Lions’ Den continues to emphasize its alignment with Hamas.
7. Lebanese Hezbollah (LH) and other Iranian-backed militias conducted three cross-border
attacks into northern Israel.
8. The United States conducted an airstrike on an IRGC weapons storage facility in eastern Syria
in response to continued Iranian-sponsored attacks in Iraq and Syria, which injured three US
servicemembers.
9. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq—a coalition of Iranian-backed Iraqi militias—claimed
responsibility for an additional five attacks on US forces in Iraq, most of which occurred after
the US airstrike in Syria. Abu Alaa al Walai—the secretary general of Iranian-backed Iraqi
militia Kataib Seyyed ol Shohada—announced his group’s support for attacks against US forces
in Iraq.
