Carolyn Moorman, Andie Parry, Annika Ganzeveld, Katherine Wells, Siddhant Kishore, Ria Reddy, Ben Rezaei, Kelly Campa, Grace Mappes, and Nicholas Carl

Information Cutoff: 2:00pm ET

Click here to read a new paper on Hamas' view of the October 7 War by Brian Carter, Critical Threats Project (CTP) Middle East Portfolio Manager.

Israeli leaders have continued deliberating over how to respond to the Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel on October 1. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the Israeli Security Cabinet to discuss potential Israeli responses on October 8 and will meet with the cabinet again for further discussion on October 10. Anonymous Israeli officials told Axios that the Israeli response will be “significant and will likely include a combination of airstrikes on military targets in Iran and clandestine attacks like the one that killed Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.” The officials appeared to make no mention of striking Iranian energy and nuclear sites. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant similarly said that the Israeli response will be “deadly and surprising,” adding that Iran “won’t understand what happened and how.” US President Joe Biden, US Vice President Kamala Harris, and Netanyahu held a phone call on October 9 to discuss further how to respond to the recent Iranian missile attack.

Gallant has postponed his official visit to Washington, DC, to discuss the Israeli response with senior US officials. Netanyahu ordered Gallant to delay the visit until after Biden and Netanyahu spoke on the phone and the Israeli Security Cabinet approved a response, according to an anonymous Israeli source speaking to the Washington Post.

Key Takeaways:

• Iran: Israeli leaders have continued deliberating over how to respond to the Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel.

• Lebanon: Lebanese Hezbollah is continuing to avoid decisive engagements with Israeli forces, as they expand the breadth of ground operations in southern Lebanon.

• Iran: Some Iranian hardliners are indirectly lobbying Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to revoke his fatwa that prohibits the production and use of nuclear weapons.

• Russia: An Iranian outlet claimed that Russia provided Iran with an S-400 air defense system and a squadron of Su-35 fighter jets but provided no evidence for this claim.

Click here to read the full update.

ISW–CTP has launched an interactive map of Israeli ground operations to accompany our daily campaign assessments of the Israel–Hamas war. This product complements the daily static maps that ISW-CTP produces with high-fidelity and, where possible, street-level assessments of the war in Israel.

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