On Tuesday, April 4, less than 11 months after applying, Finland officially became the 31st member of the NATO alliance, with a signing ceremony in Brussels. The signed agreement may be bittersweet for Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin, who championed the NATO membership but on Sunday saw her party defeated in a general election that will cost her the prime minister’s chair. However, the new government, led by the conservative National Coalition Party, has backed NATO membership.

Also on Tuesday, it was reported that Belarusian troops have begun training on a nuclear-capable Russian missile system following President Vladimir Putin‘s decision to deploy tactical weapons on Belarusian territory, Moscow and Minsk said on Tuesday. Putin on March 25 said he would station tactical nuclear arms on Russia’s ally, a move that drew widespread criticism. Tactical nuclear arms are battlefield weapons that, while devastating, have a smaller yield than long-range strategic weapons.

On Friday, April 7, the reports of rocket attacks on Thursday came shortly after videos captured clashes between Israel's Police force and hundreds of Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem. Violence between Israelis and Palestinians has escalated this week following Israeli police raids at the compound of the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, a site which is also holy in Judaism. The growing tensions come during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which coincides with the Jewish Passover holiday this year. Riki Ellison, the chairman and founder of Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, told Newsweek in October 2022 that the Iron Dome system is more designed to intercept rockets and not cruise missiles. "[Iron Dome] wasn't designed for cruise missiles, it was designed for rockets," Ellison said, adding that the Iron Dome costs far less per rocket interception when compared to the Patriot missile defense system.



On Monday, April 10, China ended three days of military drills around Taiwan on Monday saying they had tested integrated military capabilities under actual combat conditions, having practised precision strikes and blockading the island that Beijing views as its own.

Taiwan responded to Beijing's announcement by saying it would "never relax" its efforts to strengthen combat readiness and would closely monitor China's missile forces and movements of the Shandong aircraft carrier. Beijing began the drills on Saturday after Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen returned to Taipei following a meeting in Los Angeles with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

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