Washington (AP) President Donald Trump claims that assaults by Israel and Iran beyond an early Tuesday deadline to end hostilities breached the terms of the truce.
Before leaving for the NATO conference in The Hague, Trump told reporters at the White House that he was disappointed by the ongoing attacks.
Trump claimed that while they broke it, Israel also did. “I’m not happy with Israel,” he continued.
THIS NEWS UPDATE IS BREAKING. Below is AP’s earlier story.
Israel’s Beersheba (AP) When Israel accused Iran of firing missiles into its airspace after the ceasefire was set to go into effect and threatened to strike, a fragile truce was thrown into disarray on Tuesday.
Although explosions erupted and alarms sounded throughout northern Israel in the middle of the morning, and an Israeli military official said that two Iranian missiles were intercepted, Iran’s military denied shooting on Israel, according to state television.
Israel started the fight, which is currently in its 12th day, by attacking Iranian military and nuclear facilities, claiming it could not permit Tehran to develop atomic weapons and that it was afraid the Islamic Republic was near. Iran has consistently insisted that its program is non-violent.
After Israel increased the kind of targets it was attacking and the United States joined the attacks by dropping bunker-buster bombs over the weekend, many were concerned that the war may spread.
However, U.S. President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire after Tehran launched a limited retaliatory strike on a U.S. military installation in Qatar on Monday.
The agreement was accepted by both parties, but its validity is now in doubt.
Israeli Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich warned on X that Tehran will shudder and that the war might go on.
Hours into the shaky ceasefire, Iran fired two missiles at Israel, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with military norms. According to the authority, both were intercepted.
According to Iranian state media, the military accused Israel of carrying out strikes but denied firing missiles following the ceasefire’s start. With the final claims of such assaults occurring before morning, it provided no proof to back up the allegation of Israeli fire.
Trump’s social media tweet announcing the truce stated that Iran would start holding its fire hours before Israel, which made it challenging to parse through the conflicting assertions. However, even though the timeframe he first provided for Israel had not yet closed, he later declared that the truce was in effect.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered Israel’s military to begin its aggressive operations to attack Tehran and destroy targets of the regime and terror infrastructure after accusing Iran of violating the ceasefire.
In collaboration with Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel has reached a bilateral ceasefire agreement with Iran, promising to retaliate for any future violations.
He claimed that Israel had defeated Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, among other war objectives.
The truce was subsequently declared to be in place by Iranian official television. Trump stated, “THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT,” echoing this. DO NOT VIOLATE IT, PLEASE!
A final decision regarding the end of our military operations would be taken later, according to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who stated that his nation would not shoot against Israel if it was not fired upon.
According to a senior White House official who requested anonymity to disclose the Monday discussions, Trump had spoken personally with Netanyahu to achieve the ceasefire. Through direct and indirect channels, Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and special envoy Steve Witkoff interacted with the Iranians.
The White House has insisted that the Qatari government mediated the ceasefire agreement and that the U.S. bombing helped persuade the Israelis to accept it.
What part Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, played in the negotiations is unknown. He had declared on social media that he would not give up.
Following the expansion of hostilities throughout the region, the tenuous ceasefire was implemented.
According to Israel’s military, Iran fired 20 missiles against Israel prior to Tuesday morning’s truce. At least three crowded residential structures in the city of Beersheba were damaged, according to the police. According to first responders, they were looking for more victims after recovering four from one building. Prior to lowering the number, the Fire and Rescue agency said that five bodies had been discovered. Twenty or more persons were hurt.
The streets outside were littered with the shells of burned-out automobiles. The area was covered in rubble and broken glass. Some people were hurt, according to the police, while inside their apartments’ reinforced safe rooms, which are designed to survive rocket strikes but not direct ballistic missile strikes.
In retaliation for prior American bombardment of its nuclear sites, Iran launched a limited missile attack on a U.S. military station in Qatar on Monday. There were no injuries, and Iran had alerted the U.S. beforehand.
The Iraqi army and a US military official claimed Tuesday that drones had assaulted military outposts in Iraq overnight, including several that housed American personnel.
United States forces shot down drones attacking Ain al-Assad in the western Iraqi desert and at a facility near the Baghdad airport, while another drone crashed, according to a senior U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.
No group claimed responsibility for the strikes in Iraq, and no injuries were reported. In the past, certain Iraqi militias supported by Iran had threatened to attack American bases in the event that the United States invaded Iran.
The war in Israel has resulted in at least 28 fatalities and over 1,000 injuries. The Washington-based organization Human Rights Activists reports that Israeli strikes on Iran have resulted in at least 974 fatalities and 3,458 injuries.
According to the group, which has released comprehensive death tolls from the turmoil in Iran, 387 civilians and 268 members of the security forces were among the dead.
According to a State Department official, the United States has started evacuating about 250 American citizens and their immediate family members from Israel by government, military, and charter flights over the weekend.
The majority of the approximately 700,000 American citizens who are thought to be in Israel are dual U.S.-Israeli citizens.
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Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, while Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This article was written by Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Iran, Abby Sewell in Beirut, Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad, and Josef Federman in Jerusalem.
