Operation Epic Fury Enters Week Two as the Conflict Explodes Across Multiple Fronts
As Operation Epic Fury enters its second week, the US-Israeli war against Iran has metastasized into something far larger and more dangerous than anyone predicted nine days ago. Israeli tanks are rolling into Lebanon. A school strike has killed 168 people — most of them children. Trump is refusing to rule out ground troops in Iran. And China is watching nervously as the conflict threatens to reshape the entire global order.
Here’s everything you need to know about what’s happening right now.
Israel Opens a Second Front: Ground Forces Push Into Lebanon
Israeli ground forces have begun pushing into southern Lebanon in what military officials describe as a “defensive operation” to protect northern Israeli communities. But the reality on the ground tells a different story.
BBC correspondents at the Israel-Lebanon border reported seeing dozens of tanks and armored bulldozers newly positioned right along the fence line on Friday morning. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have issued a massive evacuation order reaching roughly 27 kilometers (16 miles) into Lebanese territory — far deeper than any defensive buffer zone would require.
IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has stated the objective in Lebanon is the complete disarmament of Hezbollah, and that he “will not let up until that is done.”
A senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, was even more blunt: “We have plans to go as deep as needed, including to the Litani River and further, if instructed.” He added that forces were already in place to move immediately if ordered.
Hezbollah — Iran’s most powerful proxy force — joined the war alongside Tehran on Monday and has been launching rockets and drones at northern Israel daily. Most have been intercepted by Israel’s air defense systems, but the threat has kept border communities on edge. One Israeli resident, asked if they planned to evacuate, responded: “Where would I go? Jerusalem? Tel Aviv? It’s more dangerous there now.”
Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid told local media that Israel would “have no choice” but to create a “sterile zone” in southern Lebanon — comparing it to the buffer zone Israel established in Gaza.
This is the second time in less than 18 months that Israeli forces have fought their way through southern Lebanese border villages, many of which still lie in ruins from the 2024 conflict.
The Minab School Strike: 168 Dead, Most of Them Children
Perhaps the most devastating single incident of the war so far occurred on Saturday in the southern Iranian city of Minab, where strikes hit a primary school and an adjacent Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) compound — killing 168 people.
Iranian authorities say the majority of the dead were children attending the Shajareh Tayebeh primary school, which had 264 enrolled pupils.
Satellite imagery analyzed by BBC Verify reveals multiple strike impacts and burn marks around the school, suggesting it was hit more than once by what munitions expert N.R. Jenzen Jones described as “multiple simultaneous or near-simultaneous strikes.”
Verified footage from the aftermath shows scenes of chaos — families screaming, rescue workers pulling children from rubble, bloodied schoolbags and books held up to cameras. Three days later, aerial footage showed neatly lined rows of at least 100 freshly dug graves.
Neither the United States nor Israel has claimed responsibility. Israel says it was “not aware” of any IDF operations in the area. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the BBC that Washington is “still investigating” but insisted the US would “never target civilian targets.”
However, a Pentagon briefing included an illustrative map of the “First 100 Hours” of the US-Israeli campaign that showed strike locations along Iran’s southern coast — which includes Minab.
A senior analyst from McKenzie Intelligence Services told BBC Verify that a crater on the school’s ground floor indicates a specialized penetration munition may have been used — the kind designed to punch through structures to reach underground targets.
The school building was historically part of the same IRGC compound before a wall was constructed separating them in 2016, according to satellite imagery dating back to 2013.
Trump: ‘Everything Is on the Table’ — Including Ground Troops
In an interview with ABC News, President Donald Trump refused to rule out sending American troops to Iran to seize the country’s enriched uranium.
“Everything is on the table. Everything,” Trump told reporters.
He also made extraordinary statements about Iran’s political future, saying that Iran’s next supreme leader would “have to get approval from us” and that anyone who succeeds Ayatollah Ali Khamenei without US blessing “is not going to last long.”
“We want to make sure that we don’t have to go back every 10 years, when you don’t have a president like me that’s not going to do it,” Trump added.
The comments represent a dramatic escalation in rhetoric that goes well beyond previous US demands for Iran to halt its nuclear program.
The Toll So Far: 1,332 Dead in Iran, 394 in Lebanon
The human cost of the conflict is mounting rapidly. According to the latest available figures:
- Iran: The Iranian ambassador to the UN said 1,332 civilians have been killed since strikes began
- Lebanon: The health ministry reports 394 killed, including 83 children and 42 women
- Israel: Emergency services report 10 killed and 1,929 injured since the campaign launched
- Saudi Arabia: Two killed (one Indian national, one Bangladeshi) after a projectile hit a residential area in Riyadh Province, with 12 more injured
Iran’s foreign ministry warned that strikes on oil depots are “releasing hazardous materials and toxic substances into the air” and “endangering lives on a massive scale.” Overnight strikes targeted several refineries, including the Shahran oil depot in northwest Tehran, where residents reported being able to smell burning petroleum from miles away.
New satellite imagery also reveals significant damage at the Bushehr naval base, including holes in building roofs, a capsized vessel at a jetty with an apparent oil spill, and a massive 40-meter-wide crater at the nearby air base — likely caused by a secondary explosion in an ammunition storage bunker.
China Watches Nervously: ‘What Is the Game Plan?’
The war is sending shockwaves well beyond the Middle East. China — which imported 1.38 million barrels of crude per day from Iran in 2025, roughly 12% of its total oil imports — is watching the conflict with growing anxiety.
Professor Kerry Brown, director of the China Lau Institute at King’s College London, summed up Beijing’s likely thinking: “What is the game plan? Surely the Americans didn’t go into this with no game plan.” Then he added: “Probably, along with everyone else, they would also be thinking, oh God, they really have gone into this with no plan at all.”
China has enough oil reserves for several months but faces longer-term disruption if traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked. Beijing issued a muted condemnation, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi calling it “unacceptable for the US and Israel to launch attacks against Iran… still less to blatantly assassinate a leader of a sovereign country and instigate regime change.”
Analysts at the Royal United Services Institute note that the conflict highlights the limits of China’s partnerships — Beijing has been left as a sidelined observer, “incapable of helping those within its orbit.” As one analyst put it: “The US is demonstrating what being a superpower really means, which is the ability to force outcomes in theatres across the globe.”
What Happens Next?
As the war enters its second week, several critical questions loom:
Will Israel launch a full-scale ground invasion of Lebanon? The forces are in position, the evacuation orders have been issued, and IDF leadership has explicitly said they’re ready to push to the Litani River “and further.” This would open a massive second front that could tie down Israeli forces for months.
Will the US send ground troops to Iran? Trump’s refusal to rule it out has set off alarm bells in Washington and capitals around the world. Congress has not authorized a ground war in Iran, and the political appetite for American boots on the ground in the Middle East remains low — but Trump has repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to act unilaterally.
Can Iran hold out? Tehran’s strategy appears to rest on endurance — the belief that it can absorb strikes longer than its adversaries can sustain the political and financial costs of the campaign. Iranian Kurdish opposition groups in northern Iraq have told the BBC they have plans to cross the border, adding another potential front to the conflict.
Will the conflict keep spreading? It already has. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, and Bahrain have all been hit by Iranian retaliatory strikes. The UK has placed the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales on advanced readiness. Global oil markets are in turmoil.
Israeli commentator Avi Issacharof offered a note of caution in the daily Yedioth Ahronoth: toppling the ayatollah might sound “sexy,” he wrote, “but there are no crowds in the streets of Tehran, no widespread public protests, and as yet no minority militias seizing territory.”
Nine days in, the war shows no signs of slowing down. If anything, it’s accelerating.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as the situation evolves.