{"id":319494,"date":"2026-03-03T11:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/319494\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T11:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:27:08","slug":"us-and-israel-offer-shifting-justifications-for-iran-war-what-we-know-on-day-four-us-israel-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/319494\/","title":{"rendered":"US and Israel offer shifting justifications for Iran war: what we know on day four | US-Israel war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States attacked Iran after learning that ally Israel was going to strike, which would have meant retaliation against US forces, secretary of state Marco Rubio said<\/a>. \u201cWe knew that if we didn\u2019t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,\u201d Rubio told reporters. The justification for the attack differs from justifications given by Donald Trump and defence secretary Pete Hegseth.<\/p>\n

Rubio also said the \u201chardest hits\u201d are yet to come from the US military. \u201cThe next phase will be even more punishing on Iran than it is right now,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war against Iran may take \u201csome time\u201d but it will not take years. He told Fox News: \u201cI said it could be quick and decisive. It may take some time, but it\u2019s not going to take years. It\u2019s not an endless war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump signalled that US strikes on Iran could go much longer than originally predicted. He initially projected the war to last four to five weeks, but added it could go on longer<\/a>, and has since sought to justify a broad, open-ended conflict. The president laid out what he said were four key objectives for hitting Iran: \u201cFirst, we\u2019re destroying Iran\u2019s missile capabilities \u2026 Second, we\u2019re annihilating their navy… Third, we\u2019re ensuring that the world\u2019s number-one sponsor of terror can never obtain a nuclear weapon. Finally we are ensuring the Iranian regime can\u2019t continue to arm, fund and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was hit by a drone strike, causing a fire to break out.<\/p>\n

The state department has urged Americans to immediately leave more than a dozen countries in the Middle East<\/a>, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, amid the worsening conflict. Mora Namdar, the state department\u2019s assistant secretary for consular affairs, said US citizens should leave using available commercial transportation \u201cdue to safety risks\u201d. The US has not organised its own evacuation flights.<\/p>\n

There was confusion over the status of navigation in the strait of Hormuz after a general in Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards threatened to \u201cburn any ship\u201d seeking to navigate the waterway, a vital route for oil and gas shipments. However, US Central Command said the strait was not closed, according to Fox News.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military said it began a new wave of strikes on Tehran early on Tuesday. This came shortly after the military issued an evacuation warning for Tehran residents, especially those located near the headquarters of Iran\u2019s state broadcaster IRIB.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s military said in the early hours of Tuesday that it was working to intercept a new wave of missiles launched from Iran, warning residents in multiple locations to seek shelter.<\/p>\n

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that at least 555 people had been killed across Iran. However, in its latest update, the Norway-based human rights group Hengaw said the death toll on day three had reached at least 1,500<\/a>, including 200 civilians and 1,300 members of the Iranian forces.<\/p>\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said that \u201c49 of the most senior Iranian regime leaders\u201d have been killed in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, declaring that \u201ckilling terrorists is good for America\u201d. That number includes supreme leader Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n

The number of US service members killed in Iran<\/a> has risen to six, the US military said on Monday.<\/p>\n

The US military said that it has struck over 1,250 targets in Iran since operations started on Saturday.<\/p>\n

UK prime minister Keir Starmer said that his government does not \u201cbelieve in regime change from the skies\u201d as he set out to parliament why Britain will not join its closest military partner in offensive action against Iran \u2013 suggesting that to do so would be unlawful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States attacked Iran after learning that ally Israel was going to strike, which would have meant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-319494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}