Iran and Israel say they have halted attacks on each other, after exchanging fire for the first time since April’s truce.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday his country was holding fire “at the moment”. But he stressed that the struggle against Iran and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon was “not finished”.
Iran’s military earlier said it had stopped operations following the delivery of a “painful response” to Israel. It pledged “more severe and crushing measures” if Israel carried out more strikes, including in Lebanon.
Separately, President Donald Trump said the crew of a US army helicopter were “fine” after US media reported that a helicopter had crashed in the Strait of Hormuz.
The New York Times said an Apache helicopter with two crew members went down in unclear circumstances and the crew were safely rescued.
Trump gave no details about what caused the incident but said there was “nobody injured” and the White House would say more later.
Tehran launched missiles at Israel on Sunday in retaliation for a strike on Beirut.
Israel responded in the early hours of Monday morning by targeting what it said were military sites in the Islamic Republic.
In a call with the BBC, Trump denied that Netanyahu had defied his wishes by launching strikes.
“No, no. They had already gone. They had already gone. They were already on their way,” he said.
The White House confirmed that Trump had called Netanyahu to discuss the crisis. An Israeli official said Israel had halted its strikes at his request.
Asked how he had persuaded Netanyahu to stop attacking Iran, Trump responded: “All I did is say, ‘We have to use sense’. We’re very close to signing a very powerful deal, a very good deal.
“No nuclear weapons, no nothing. You know, we have to use a lot of common sense. It was fine.”
Trump also said of Netanyahu: “If I tell him to do something, he does it.”
The president told US news outlet Axios he had told Israel’s prime minister he might find himself fighting alone if he went back to war with Iran.
“I said, ‘Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon,’” Axios quoted him as saying.
In his televised statement on Monday, Netanyahu said he had told Trump that “Israel has a full right to self-defence, and we are exercising it as required”.
Sunday’s exchange of fire had continued on Monday morning, with Iran launching more missiles towards Jerusalem and central and southern Israel, according to Israeli authorities.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said a second wave of air strikes had targeted a petrochemical complex in the south-western Iranian city of Mahshahr, where an Israeli military official said chemicals used for ballistic missiles were produced.
Iran’s Emergency Organisation chief, Jafar Miadfar, told Tasnim news agency that the strikes injured 14 people in Mahshahr and one in Tehran.
Casualties were also reported in Lebanon, where the health ministry said five people had been killed and eight wounded in an Israeli strike on Tyre in southern Lebanon on Monday. The Red Cross said four of its rescuers were among the injured.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it had fired a rocket barrage at a group of Israeli army vehicles and soldiers in southern Lebanon on Monday morning.
Trump publicly told both countries to “immediately stop ‘shooting’” because they were jeopardising negotiations between Washington and Tehran on a deal to end the regional war.
“Israel and Iran… are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE! Final negotiations on ‘Peace’ are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way,” he wrote on Truth Social.
On Tuesday Trump told journalists: “We’re in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal.”
When asked whether it would be matter of days or weeks, he said it could take “two or three days” and the Strait of Hormuz would open immediately after.
The war began on 28 February, when Israel and the US launched a joint attack on Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several other top officials.
The hostilities spread quickly across the Middle East, as Iran retaliated by launching missiles and drones at Israel and Gulf Arab states hosting US military facilities. Iran also effectively blocked the crucial Strait of Hormuz waterway, causing a surge in the price of oil.
Lebanon was drawn into the conflict on 2 March, when Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in retaliation for Khamenei’s assassination. Israel responded with air strikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion of a significant part of the country’s south.
The post Iran and Israel say they will pause strikes but warn of retaliation if ceasefire breached again appeared first on KBC Digital.