The U.S. and Israel began launching strikes against Iran more than five weeks ago. U.S. Central Command has said its forces struck more than 13,000 Iranian targets so far, and Trump has been intensifying his threats against the country, warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight.”

There are concerns inside the Trump administration that Hegseth is being unrealistic about the true state of the war, and he could be misleading the president because of his faulty assessment, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah, a renowned British-Palestinian surgeon who has treated the wounded in Gaza and Lebanon, called Israel’s unprecedented bombardment an “absolute massacre”.

“It’s an absolute massacre, an absolute massacre and it happened almost simultaneously,” he told The Independent from a hospital in Lebanese capital.

“Emergency departments have been flooded across the whole of Beirut. We had the first wave and now we’re getting the second wave of people being dug out of the rubble. It’s horrendous. A lot of people brought in dead, a lot of children with severe injuries. ”

The Lebanese health ministry said there were “dozens dead and hundreds injured” but expected that estimate to rise as people were still being dug out of the rubble.

Hundreds of people have been killed or injured in Israeli strikes on Lebanon according to the country’s health minister.

The news follows comments by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said that a US-Iran ceasefire did not apply to Israel’s operations in Lebanon, which it says are to defeat Hezbollah.

Humanitarian groups and politicians including French president Emmanuel Macron have warned that the situation in Lebanon is “critical” and have urged for it to be included within a ceasefire agreement.

Hezbollah said it had paused fighting and urged Israel to follow.

General Dan Caine has claimed that 80 per cent of Iran’s air defence systems have been destroyed in a press conference this afternoon.

He said that 90 per cent of Iran’s weapons factories and more than 90 per cent of Iran’s conventional navy fleet had been destroyed.

Caine said it would take “years” for Iran to rebuild any major surface combatants.

Pete Hegseth thanked God in a speech declaring a “decisive” victory following a ceasefire between Iran and the US.

He said that the US had been guided under “divine providence” as he added: “God is good.”

Pete Hegseth has once again alleged that Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “wounded and disfigured”. It seems to support reports from The Times earlier this week that the leader is unconscious and unable to govern Iran.

America’s defence secretary further declared: “We now have a chance at real peace”.

The US had a “decisive military victory” in Operation Epic Fury, Pete Hegseth has said as he claimed that Iran “begged for this ceasefire”.

He added that Iran’s missile program is “functionally destroyed” adding that the country’s factories have been “razed to the ground”.

Hegseth said President Donald Trump had chosen to show “mercy” to Iran.