Within a few hours of publicly agreeing to a ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump, Israel has launched new strikes at Iran, which it accused of breaking the peace deal.
The resumption of hostilities threatens to extend the conflict that Trump dubbed the “12 Day War.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday he ordered the Israeli Defense Forces to “respond forcefully to Iran’s violation of the ceasefire with intense strikes against regime targets in the heart of Tehran.”
The IDF said it sounded sirens in northern Israel “due to missile fire from Iran” around 3:30 a.m. ET. Iran earlier launched several waves of strikes at Israel shortly before acknowledging the beginning of a ceasefire, but an Israeli official told the Associated Press that two missiles were detected and intercepted hours after the start of the ceasefire.
“In light of the severe violation of the ceasefire carried out by the Iranian regime, we will respond with force,” Israel’s Chief of General Staff Eyal Zamir said.
Iran’s General Staff of Armed Forces denied Israel’s claims that it fired fresh missiles at Israel after the ceasefire began, Iranian state media reported.
Hardline Israeli politicians seemed to celebrate the renewal of hostilities. “Tehran trembles,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, an member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, posted on X. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a pair of emojis: 💥🤌🏻.
Israel had said that it agreed to the ceasefire because it had already “achieved all of the objectives” of its military operation that began on June 13 and has killed hundreds of Iranians, including top generals and nuclear scientists. The earlier statement noted, however, that “Israel will respond forcefully to any violation of the ceasefire.”
Trump, who touted the truce on Monday night and warned “please do not violate it,” has not yet publicly commented on how the U.S. will respond to the ceasefire’s collapse.