The ceasefire between Iran and Israel announced by Donald Trump last night has already broken down after Israel accused Iran of a fresh launch of ballistic missiles and promised to “respond forcefully”. The Mail has more.
Israel is preparing to “respond forcefully” after it said Iran breached the ceasefire by launching ballistic missiles shortly after it was meant to come into effect.
Donald Trump warned the warring sides to “please not violate” the ceasefire last night, declaring that it marked a new chapter of “world peace”.
But hopes that the fighting would be halted were short lived, with Israel saying it had intercepted two ballistic missiles this morning.
In response, Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the IDF to “respond forcefully to Iran’s violation of the ceasefire with intense strikes against regime targets in the heart of Tehran”.
Israel earlier said it had agreed to Trump’s proposal, declaring it had successfully removed Iran’s “dual immediate existential threat” of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles – helped by the US intervening with strikes on Tehran’s atomic facilities.
Iran also confirmed a ceasefire was in place this morning, just hours after it launched retaliatory attacks on America’s largest military base in the Middle East.
What were hoped to be the last Iranian missiles of the conflict rained down on Israel this morning, killing four people and injuring at least a dozen more when they hit a residential building in the country’s south.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed Tehran had halted its retaliation against Israel at 4am local time, but the IDF said sirens were sounding in Israel shortly before 6am local time due to the missile launch.
Araghchi said there is no ceasefire agreement with Israel, but that his country has “no intention to continue” military operations if Israel stops its attacks, which it is due to do later today according to Trump’s plan.
Trump announced the “bilateral ceasefire” on Monday – less than two weeks after Iran and Israel started exchanging missile strikes and two days after the US blasted the Islamic Republic’s nuclear labs with ‘bunker buster’ bombs.
The President said on his Truth Social platform that the “12 day war” will “end” in 24 hours, writing in another post that it was set to go into effect once in-progress missions were completed.
In a separate statement, he simply wrote: “CONGRATULATIONS WORLD, IT’S TIME FOR PEACE.” It now appears his plans have not been respected.
Follow the Mail’s live coverage here.
Trump has suggested Iran fired “perhaps by mistake” and indicated he is “really unhappy” with Israel for using the 12 hours after the ceasefire agreement to unload on Iran and for now preparing further attacks on the country. From the Telegraph:
Trump was asked on the South Lawn whether he believed Iran still wanted peace. He said he did, but then said both sides had violated the ceasefire.
But he appeared to suggest that Iran may have fired a rocket by accident.
“Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’d never seen before, the biggest load that we’ve seen. I’m not happy with Israel,” he told reporters as he left for the Nato summit in the Hague.
“You know when I say, Okay, now you have 12 hours. You don’t go out in the first hour, just drop everything you have on them. So I’m not happy with them.
“I’m not happy with Iran either. But I’m really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning because of one rocket that didn’t land, that was shot, perhaps by mistake, that didn’t land. I’m not happy about that. 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.” …
After talking the press gathered to watch his White House departure, he took to Truth Social to post an all caps message.
“ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES”
The President appears to be referring to the Israeli defence minister’s promise to launch “intense” strikes on the “heart of Tehran”.
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