It has just gone past 14.50 pm in Tel Aviv and Beirut, and 15.20 pm in Tehran. Here is a summary of the key events so far today:
-
The US president, Donald Trump, told Iran and Israel to stop “shooting” after the two sides attacked each other’s territory for the first time since a fragile ceasefire took effect in April.
-
Trump then said that Israel and Iran were “looking to do an immediate ceasefire”.
-
Shortly afterwards, the Iranian military’s joint command said it was halting its offensive operations against Israel, but warned that if attacks continue, “including in southern Lebanon,” Iran will respond in “much more severe and crushing” ways than before.
-
The Israeli army said before this statement that it was preparing for at least several days of conflict with Iran and was operating in coordination with the US.
-
Iran launched waves of attacks on Israel on Monday, and Israel launched strikes on central and western Iran. Explosions were heard in the Iranian capital of Tehran – there were no immediate reports of casualties.
-
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Monday it launched a missile attack on a petrochemical plant in the northern Israeli city of Haifa in retaliation for Israeli strikes on the Karun petrochemical plant in Mahshahr, a city in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province.
-
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels also fired at Israel and warned they would target Israeli-affiliated ships in the Red Sea.
-
The escalation in conflict, which threatened to drag the region back into war, came after Israel attacked the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Sunday in what Tehran viewed as a violation of the US-Iran ceasefire.
-
Israel claimed it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure after it said the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group fired rockets at northern Israel.
-
The Israeli attack hit two apartments in two separate buildings, Lebanon’s state news agency reported, killing two people, according to a preliminary casualty count.
The Israeli Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has said that it will reopen the Kerem Shalom Crossing back into Gaza to “gradually” allow in aid from Tuesday.
This comes after it announced on Sunday that “a number of necessary security measures have been implemented” after Iran’s missile firing on Israel. This includes “the closure of the crossings into the Gaza Strip, among them the Kerem Shalom Crossing and the Rafah Crossing, until further notice.”
It is unclear as to whether other border crossings will be opened. The closing of these crossings was criticised by humanitarian organisations including Medical Aid For Palestinians and Save The Children.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Monday that he has stopped strikes on Iran, and claims The IDF’s strikes has deterred the Islamic republic from launching further attacks, leading to a cessation of hostilities between the two adversaries.
“At this moment, the fire on that front is contained – after we struck the terror regime in Tehran, it stopped attacking us,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement.
However, in the video statement he also said the state would respond “with force” to future attacks.
In a video statement, Netanyahu said the fighting stopped after Israel “hit the terror regime in Tehran.”
He added: “If Iran makes the mistake and attacks us again, we will respond forcefully.”
“Israel has a full right to self-defence and we exercise it to the extent necessary,” he said.
In the televised statement, he also acknowledges his conversations with US president Donald Trump, who he has been confirmed to have spoken to since the strikes began on Sunday.
US president Donald Trump called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, AFP reports, after the first exchanges of fire between Israel and Iran since an April ceasefire.
This phone call comes after Trump called his ally “crazy” during another recent phone call between the pair. Speaking to the agency, a White House spokesperson confirmed that a phone call took place on Monday but did not give any further details.
Iran fired missiles at Israel overnight and Israel responded by targeting military sites in the Islamic republic, sparking fears of a new full-scale conflict.
“Israel and Iran must immediately stop ’shooting’,” Trump wrote earlier Monday on social media.
Also on Monday, Netanyahu has said that Hezbollah are “weaker than ever”, but says that the war with them “has not yet ended”.
The director of Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) has criticised the closing of aid borders in Gaza, calling it an “illegal act of collective punishment”.
This comes after the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said on Sunday that all crossings with the Gaza Strip will remain closed until further notice – after Iran’s missile strikes in Israel.
According to The Times of Israel, COGAT said: “a number of necessary security measures have been implemented” after the missile firing. This includes “the closure of the crossings into the Gaza Strip, among them the Kerem Shalom Crossing and the Rafah Crossing, until further notice.”
However, Fikr Shaltoot, Gaza director at MAP, says that this is a “form of collective punishment against Palestinians and egregious use of starvation as a weapon of war”, and she argues that this is illegal and will cost more lives.
Shaltoot said: “Nearly a thousand Palestinians have been killed since the so-called ‘ceasefire’ came into effect – and even before the crossings were sealed, aid was only ever trickling in, keeping millions only slightly above the threshold of starvation and between living and dying.
“Life-saving medical supplies, fuel, cooking gas, essential equipment – all of it might now be blocked. Hospitals that were already struggling without medicines or power will now face an even graver crisis.”
MAP calls for the crossings to be opened, and calls on the international community to support the guarantee of full humanitarian access, the suspension on all arms sales, and support accountability mechanisms.
Speaking to CNN on the condition of anonymity, a US official denied Israel’s claim that the US intercepted Iranian ballistic missiles launched at Israel overnight.
It contradicts an Israeli military official who said earlier that the US helped Israel’s air defence efforts, including by intercepting some of the Iranian missiles.
In previous rounds of fighting, the US has acknowledged helping Israel shoot down Iranian missiles fired toward the country, making the denial unusual.
In this insightful analysis piece, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, sums up the state of US-Iran negotiations and nods at how Tehran’s grip on the strait of Hormuz puts them in a relatively strong position going forward despite the country’s economy suffering heavily from the war. Here is an extract:
Iran’s negotiating demands have been remarkably consistent: a ceasefire in Lebanon including the withdrawal of Israel forces and the unfreezing of half of Iran’s frozen assets, about $12bn; a form of Iranian management over the strait of Hormuz; and detailed discussions later about how Tehran assures the US it is not seeking a nuclear weapon, including the down-blending of its highly enriched uranium stockpile.
Trump has been very close to agreeing these terms, but is trying to find ways to phrase them to make them more palatable to his domestic audience.
That is because on balance, the battle of blockades in the strait of Hormuz is trending in Iran’s favour. World oil inventories slowly running out, crashing the global economy from Japan to Brazil, seems more dangerous than Iran running out of cash and oil exports. The democratic west’s capacity to absorb economic pain does not match that of the Iranian regime.
Iraq’s civil aviation authority said the country’s airspace has reopened after earlier announcing a 72-hour closure in response to the renewed exchange of fire between Israel and Iran.
Syria also reportedly reopened its airspace to commercial air traffic on Monday, after partially closing it yesterday. Iranian media is reporting that Iran has cancelled all domestic flights (until further notice).
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, announced that member states have sanctioned Iran over “restricting naval traffic” in the strait of Hormuz as she said Tehran’s drones are threatening safe passage for commercial vessels wanting to transit the key waterway. In a social media post, Kallas wrote:
Ministers were clear that Iran’s actions are unacceptable. In response, EU member states in Brussels today sanctioned Iranians over restricting naval traffic in the Strait. This is the first time the EU applies its new freedom of navigation sanctions regime.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene a full security cabinet tonight at 9pm, the Times of Israel is reporting. There has been no formal comment from Netanyahu on the renewed fighting with Iran since it began yesterday.
Hezbollah said earlier that it fired a rocket barrage at Israeli army vehicles and soldiers in southern Lebanon this morning in retaliation to Israel’s “violation of the ceasefire and its attacks on villages in southern Lebanon”.
Netanyahu will be under pressure domestically to continue his strikes on Lebanon and to degrade Hezbollah’s ability to conduct retaliatory attacks against Israel, but is in a bind as he is being told by the US to halt the military assault because it is derailing Washington’s peace talks with Iran.
Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has urged “all sides” to show restraint in order to give peace and diplomacy a chance of success.
In a post on X, Sharif said:
The recent surge in violence in the Middle East is a stark reminder of the dangers associated with a tenuous ceasefire and the unbearable consequences it may lead to.
As we work earnestly and painstakingly, together with our brothers and partners, to find a peaceful diplomatic solution to the conflict, and especially when the final objective is just about to be achieved, we sincerely urge all sides to exercise restraint and give peace a little more chance.
Let us continue to remain on the path of peace and diplomacy which have bright prospects of success instead of violence and destruction!
Pakistan has relatively good ties with both Washington and Tehran and has been the main mediator in the peace talks between the two sides.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting that a child was among three Palestinian people killed in an Israeli strike targeting a group of civilians in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
In a separate report, citing local sources, Wafa reported that several Palestinian people were injured after Israeli warplanes targeted a residential apartment in Gaza City.
Israel’s education minister Yoav Kisch wrote in a post on X this afternoon that schools would not open on Tuesday.
Kisch said the ministry of education aims to reopen classrooms on Wednesday under guidelines that would ensure students have access to close shelter.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
