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A fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel looked on the brink of collapse on Tuesday, prompting an explosive response from Donald Trump.
The US president had boasted of a “complete and total ceasefire” between the warring sides on Monday, and upon announcing on Tuesday morning it had come into effect he urged “please do not violate it”.
But within hours the two sides were accusing the other of breaking the arrangement. Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Iran launched a missile at 7:06am local time, six minutes after the US-brokered ceasefire came into effect. It said Iran fired two additional missiles at 10:25am. No casualties or damage were reported.
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The Israeli military said it “forcefully attacked in the heart of Tehran” at 3am local time, around two hours after Trump announced the truce would come into force.
The president did nothing to hide his fury when asked for comment at the White House, shortly before travelling to a NATO summit at the Hague.
“Iran violated it, but Israel violated it too,” he told reporters. “Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs the likes of which I’ve never seen before. The biggest load that we’ve seen.
“I’m not happy with Israel. You know, when I say ‘OK, you have 12 hours,’ you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either.
“You know what? We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing.”
Trump followed his comments with a demand on his Truth Social platform, directed at Israel: “Do not drop those bombs. If you do it is a major violation”.
Later in the day, after the ceasefire had begun and Trump had told Israel not to attack, two explosions were heard in Tehran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office acknowledged that Israel had bombed a radar site near Tehran in what it said was retaliation for Iranian missiles fired three-and-a-half hours after the ceasefire had been due to begin.
It said Israel had decided to refrain from further attacks following a call between Netanyahu and Trump, but did not explicitly say whether the strike on the radar site took place before or after they spoke.
The Islamic Republic denied launching any missiles and said Israel's attacks had continued for an hour-and-a-half beyond the time the truce was meant to start.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said later Tehran would not violate the ceasefire unless Israel did so, and that it was prepared to return to the negotiating table, without elaborating, according to state-run Nournews.
The ceasefire was announced after American bombing raids on Sunday which Trump says “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Oil prices fell and share markets rose worldwide at the prospect of an end to the conflict, lifting a threat of disruption to oil supplies from the Gulf to the wider world.
World leaders welcomed the apparent pause in hostilities, though noted that the situation was delicate.
“That ceasefire needs to be maintained, and that will be the focus of our attention, our engagement, our discussions, because that ceasefire provides the space for the negotiations that need to take place,” British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer said ahead of the Nato summit. “It will have to be negotiations … to ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon capability and that is very important for safety and security, not just in the region, but more widely.”
Sir Keir’s praise of the ceasefire effort was echoed by other European leaders, including German chancellor Friedrich Merz, French president Emmanuel Macron and EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
Meanwhile in Gaza, at least 44 people were killed by Israeli forces on Tuesday according to witnesses and hospitals. In central Gaza, three witnesses said Israeli forces opened fire as people advanced east towards aid trucks south of Wadi Gaza. Israel's military said it was reviewing the incident, which took place near the Netzarim corridor, a road that separates northern and southern Gaza.
Gaza's Health Ministry add that Israel's 21-month military operation in the war-torn enclave has now killed 56,077 Palestinians. The war was sparked by Hamas's surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023, that killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 others hostage.
