Haifa

Haifa is Israel's third-largest city and its principal northern port, home to approximately 280,000 people. It hosts the Bazan oil refinery, Israel's largest, which processes roughly 197,000 Barrels Per Day and produces half of the country's domestic fuel. This made it a natural target when Iran adopted an "oil for oil" targeting doctrine in March 2026.

The IRGC launched Kheibarshekan missiles at the Bazan refinery on 8 March, hours after Israeli strikes on Tehran's oil infrastructure. Iran explicitly framed the attack as reciprocal: "oil for oil." A second Iranian missile reached the refinery on 20 March, briefly disrupting power. The IDF stated damage was not significant on both occasions, though independent damage assessments were not available.

Haifa also came under sustained Hezbollah fire from southern Lebanon. Over 100 rockets hit northern Israel in a single barrage on 12 March as part of a declared joint IRGC-Hezbollah operation. The city has faced simultaneous threats from two directions: Iranian Ballistic Missiles from the east and Hezbollah rockets from the north. This forced Israel's air defences to track and intercept from multiple axes simultaneously, a tactical precedent that demonstrated the vulnerability of even well-defended cities to coordinated multi-front fire.