The war in the region is showing a striking military shift, with Iran and Hezbollah launching missiles simultaneously toward Israel, signaling a move from sporadic attacks to coordinated fire across two fronts.
The step reflects an effort to impose new military equations and generate simultaneous pressure across multiple arenas.
Experts say the confrontation is effectively being run as a single front led by Tehran, with the Lebanese front appearing as a direct extension of the battle Iran is fighting.
Hezbollah underscored that when it said its missile attacks were in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, while Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement Wednesday evening that it had joined Hezbollah in what was called “Operation Al-Asf Al-Makoul.”
Lebanese government summons Iranian embassy official
The Iranian statement triggered a response in Lebanon. The cabinet decided to summon the Iranian embassy’s charge d’affaires, linking the move to a recent decision banning any activity by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon.
Information Minister Paul Morcos said that after the Revolutionary Guards’ statement referring to a joint operation with Hezbollah, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam asked Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji to “summon the appropriate official from the Iranian embassy.”
Rajji subsequently summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires and tasked the secretary-general of the Foreign Ministry with meeting him on Friday morning to convey Lebanon’s position rejecting any Iranian interference in the country’s internal affairs.
One front managed between Tehran and Beirut
Since the start of the US-Iran war, near-daily barrages have been launched from Iranian territory toward Israel’s interior, alongside dozens of rockets fired from southern Lebanon toward northern Israel.
The synchronized attacks deliver both a political and military message. Air raid sirens have sounded across wide areas from northern to central Israel during the barrages.
The latest operation was what Hezbollah called “Operation Al-Asf Al-Makoul,” which the Revolutionary Guards also said it had joined alongside the group.
Israeli military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said Thursday that Hezbollah, in coordination with Iran, launched an overnight attack involving missiles and drones targeting cities and communities across Israel.
About 200 rockets and 20 drones were fired, he said, in addition to ballistic missiles launched from Iran at the same time.
Shoshani described it as the largest barrage Hezbollah has fired since the start of the war, but said Israeli air defenses and a rapid response limited the damage.
A security source told Asharq Al-Awsat the parallel strikes leave “no room for doubt that the military order comes from the same source,” adding that Iran views the war as “one front, not two,” managed from Tehran and Beirut alike.
The source said that view is also reflected in Israeli assassinations targeting Revolutionary Guard commanders, adding that those carrying out operations tied to that source “must execute the orders.”
Tactic aimed at Israeli air defenses
Retired Brigadier General Yaroob Sakher said the parallel launches reflect a tactic aimed primarily at confusing Israel’s air defense systems.
He said barrages fired by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, given the group’s geographic proximity to Israel, serve to occupy defense systems and disperse their ability to respond to threats, opening a time window for long-range Iranian missiles attempting to penetrate those defenses.
Hezbollah as an ‘attrition front’
Sakher said the approach relies on synchronized barrages: closer-range rockets serve as a defensive distraction, while missiles launched farther away aim to exploit the resulting confusion.
But he said the tactic’s results remain limited, succeeding at times but failing often because of the density and sophistication of Israeli air defenses.
Sakher places the approach within what he describes as a broader Iranian strategy. In his view, Tehran sees the war as a major confrontation that could threaten its future and is therefore deploying all available tools.
That includes expanding regional tension while activating its regional allies, foremost Hezbollah, which forms the front closest to Israel.
However, he said Hezbollah no longer possesses all its previous capabilities after the blows it has sustained, leaving its role closer to a front of attrition or distraction than a decisive battlefield.
Israel strikes across multiple fronts
Sakher said Israel, in turn, is pursuing a parallel strategy by spreading its strikes across multiple fronts.
As Iran operates simultaneously from Tehran and Beirut, Israel is balancing its attacks between Iran and Hezbollah, backed by significant military and logistical capabilities, along with a US military presence in the region and the continued arrival of cargo aircraft carrying weapons to Israel.
He said the ongoing strikes have begun to affect Iran’s missile capabilities by targeting production sites and storage facilities above and below ground, gradually reducing its ballistic missile stockpile.
Hezbollah’s missile arsenal, he added, is also being depleted under sustained Israeli strikes.
In Sakher’s assessment, the balance of power clearly favors the United States and Israel because of the wide gap in military technology.
Iran, he said, relies on less advanced capabilities than those of the opposing side, including technologies based on artificial intelligence.
“In the short term, the battle does not appear to be moving in Tehran’s favor,” Sakher said, pointing to the continuing strikes on Iran’s missile capabilities.
He added that this could accelerate the confrontation's resolution, unless new political or military developments emerge.
