The Israel Defense Forces’ top spokesperson confirmed to CNN on Sunday that “Operation Roaring Lion” is currently planned to continue until April 5.
The reported confirmation by IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin followed several indications in recent days that Israel and the U.S. are preparing for another three weeks at least of military conflict with Iran.
“We have thousands of targets ahead,” CNN quoted Defrin as saying. “We are ready, in coordination with our U.S. allies, with plans through at least the Jewish holiday of Passover, about three weeks from now. And we have deeper plans for even three weeks beyond that.”
Passover this year begins on the evening of April 1 and ends (in Israel) on April 8.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told ABC on Sunday that he expected the war with Iran to end within “the next few weeks,” followed by a decrease in oil prices.
“I think that this conflict will certainly come to the end in the next few weeks—could be sooner than that. But the conflict will come to the end in the next few weeks, and we’ll see a rebound in supplies and a pushing down in prices after that,” Wright told ABC‘s “This Week.”
Last week, Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kisch said remote learning would likely continue until the Passover school vacation, which is scheduled to begin on March 24. Schools switched to remote learning on March 1, following the launch the previous day of the operation in Iran. The switch was due to emergency regulations limiting gatherings to prevent casualties from missiles fired by Iran and its proxies.
On Friday, i24 News reported that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir had told his top officers to prepare for fighting “that would continue at least until the holidays of Nisan,” the Hebrew month when Passover is celebrated. The last religious holiday of Nisan, Shevi’i shel Pesach, the seventh and last day of the Passover holiday, falls this year on April 8.
