Israel and Iran appeared to backtrack on further strikes on Monday, hours after engaging in firefights for the first time since the United States reached a ceasefire with Tehran two months ago.
Both countries warned they were prepared to launch retaliatory attacks if provoked. The resumption of hostilities has raised fears that the Middle East could plunge back into all-out war.
The war, launched by the United States and Israel on February 28 with strikes against Iran, has shaken the global economy, driven up energy prices around the world and caused the cost of many basic necessities to skyrocket.
Officials have failed to turn the ceasefire, reached on April 8, into an agreement to end the conflict for good.
These new attacks prompted US President Donald Trump to call for an immediate end to the fighting between Israel and Iran.
Shortly after, the Iranian military’s joint command issued a statement saying it was halting the offensive strikes. The statement said that any further “aggression and hostile acts” on the part of Israel and its supporters, including in southern Lebanon, would be met with “much more severe and crushing measures than before.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking in a recorded statement, suggested that the current wave of fighting was over. However, he also warned that if Iran “made the mistake of attacking us again, we would retaliate with force.”
Netanyahu said Israel continued to carry out operations in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah and that Israel “has the full right to defend itself, and will exercise it to the fullest extent necessary.”
Both countries lifted the restrictions they had imposed as security measures. The Israeli army said that most schools in Israel, which had closed on Monday, would reopen.
Iran’s official Mizan news agency reported that the Islamic Republic had lifted air restrictions on civilian flights.
During the truce, Iran maintained its hold on the Strait of Hormuz, while Israel continued to strike Hezbollah, Iran’s ally in Lebanon, and continued its advance in that country. And on Monday, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, other allies of Iran, fired on Israel.
Diplomats are mobilizing
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed concern on Monday about the upsurge in violence. In a message published on X, Sharif urged all parties to “show restraint and give peace another chance.”
According to two regional officials, the diplomatic efforts have mobilized Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan and Qatar, all of which have urged the Trump administration to pressure Israel to end its strikes against Iran and Beirut.
They also called on Iranian officials to stop their attacks against Israel. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.
Explosions in Tehran and central Israel
Iran launched a series of attacks against Israel on Monday, and Israel responded by striking central and western Iran.
Iranian state media reported at least 15 people injured in explosions in Tehran and other cities. No deaths were immediately reported.
The semi-official Fars and Mehr news agencies reported that the Israeli strikes hit a petrochemical plant in the town of Mahshahr. The Israeli army later confirmed the strike against the petrochemical plant and also announced that it had targeted missile launchers mounted on trucks.
Israel said its strikes were a response to an Iranian missile attack. Tehran warned on Sunday that it would retaliate after Israel struck the southern suburbs of Beirut without warning. When Israel retaliated, Iran fired again.
Explosions were heard in central Israel as air defenses attempted to intercept Iranian fire. The Revolutionary Guards, an Iranian paramilitary force, reported targeting two military bases in Israel.
Iran blamed the United States for this escalation.
“No one believes that the Israeli regime would take the slightest measure without coordination with the United States,” said the spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmail Baghaei, during a press briefing in Tehran.
Tensions increase
Mr. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the war in a closely coordinated attack. Israeli officials have proudly boasted of unprecedented “side-by-side” cooperation throughout the conflict, which reached its 100th day on Monday.
But since the first strikes, the two men have taken opposite directions.
Mr. Netanyahu appears to have openly defied Mr. Trump with his Sunday strike in Beirut and subsequent attacks in Iran. Mr. Trump, for his part, has expressed his dissatisfaction with Israel, sometimes belittling Mr. Netanyahu by telling the Financial Times: “I make all the decisions.”
The differences between the two leaders seem to find their origin in the national considerations of each.
Mr. Netanyahu faces elections this fall and is under intense public pressure to respond to Hezbollah’s incessant attacks on northern Israel. He is also wary of appearing too submissive to Mr. Trump.
The American president will also face elections – those of Congress in November – and wants to put an end to this war which has shaken the world economy and raised prices for consumers.
Houthis claim attack
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Monday claimed responsibility for an attack on Israel and said Israeli-linked ships would again be targeted in the Red Sea, endangering that sea lane as well as the Gulf of Aden and the narrow Strait of Bab el-Mandeb which connects them.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree’s statement was broadcast on the Houthis’ satellite news channel, Al-Masirah.
The Houthis had made a similar threat during the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. They killed at least nine sailors and sank four ships in more than a hundred attacks, often targeting ships with an indirect or no connection to Israel.
These attacks disrupted maritime traffic in the Red Sea, through which approximately US$1,000 billion worth of goods passed each year before the war.
