A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The war in the Middle East continues to expand.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Israeli warplanes this morning are striking Iran and Lebanon, and the U.S. is calling on its citizens to evacuate more than a dozen countries across the region as Iran retaliates.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Daniel Estrin has been in Tel Aviv covering the war since it began this weekend. Daniel, all right. A few days in, what stage is everything in right now?
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Yesterday, Israel focused on targeting regime symbols in Iran. So it bombed the Iranian intelligence ministry headquarters, the state broadcaster, the presidential office, the building of the National Security Council. Today, Israel's military says its focus is on Iran's missiles and missile launchers. And already, Israel says it has destroyed hundreds of ballistic missiles and dozens of missile launchers in Iran.
And you really see a huge drop in the number of missile attacks on Israel, which could be because of all that degraded infrastructure. It also could be because Iran may be rationing its munitions, gearing up for a long war.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, President Trump spoke yesterday about maybe this lasting - what? - four or five weeks or maybe even a little bit longer. What's it looking like there? I mean, how - what are people thinking about how long this might last?
ESTRIN: Well, the Israeli military today said it's preparing for weeks of war. I spoke with an official in the region who spoke on condition of anonymity, who told me Israel thinks it can achieve its war goals in two weeks total. But the question of war goals is a key one. We are hearing a lot of mixed messages about the goals. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on Fox News yesterday, saying regime change is the goal.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: We're going to create the conditions first for the Iranian people to get control of their destiny, to form their own democratically elected government, which will make Iran a different Iran altogether.
ESTRIN: U.S. officials, however, are walking back the idea that this is a regime-change war. They're saying only that that outcome would be nice. On the ground in Iran, we are not seeing Iranians under bombardment pouring into the streets, protesting against their government, trying to take it over. And Israel today said it's not planning to send ground troops to Iran. So there is a question of whether regime change or allowing the conditions for Iranians to overthrow their government - whether that's possible.
MARTÍNEZ: And didn't President Trump just a few days ago tell people in Iran to stay sheltered, to not go out quite yet? I do remember him saying that, right?
ESTRIN: That's right. Yeah. Bombs will fall.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
ESTRIN: And then afterwards, he called on Iranians to take over their government.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
ESTRIN: And now we're hearing a very different message from the U.S.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. And then, of course, the war is also expanding all over the region.
ESTRIN: Yeah. Hezbollah and Lebanon opened fire at Israel, and Israel is striking back. Israel also says it's sending ground troops across the border into Lebanon, just along the border to patrol that border to prevent Hezbollah infiltration. I should say, this is very low-grade warfare so far between Israel and Hezbollah. We're not seeing Israel taking out major Lebanese infrastructure. You know, the U.S. supports the Lebanese government. Hezbollah fire is not at its most intensive.
What is happening in the Gulf, however, is huge. Iran is pounding U.S. positions in the Gulf. Several U.S. service members have been killed. The U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia was hit by Iranian drones and causing minor damage there. Qatar says it shot down Iranian warplanes. This is the first-known instance of Iran sending warplanes toward Qatar and the first instance we know of of a Gulf Arab country actually attacking Iranian aircraft.
That is an expanded role for a Gulf Arab country, what Qatar did, attacking Iranian warplanes. And so now we're going to be watching for whether Arab countries being attacked by Iran now will actively join the war.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Daniel, thanks.
ESTRIN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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