Iran and Israel are reported to have agreed to a ceasefire following 12 days of exchanging intense air strikes, including a “last-minute” barrage fired by Tehran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Tuesday morning that Israel had agreed to the truce proposal announced by United States President Donald Trump overnight. Earlier, Iranian state television reported that the ceasefire had begun.
The Israeli statement came not long after Trump had said in a post on social media that the ceasefire was under way.
“The ceasefire is now in effect. Please do not violate it!” he said.
While Netanyahu threatened that Israel would respond forcefully to any violation of the ceasefire, the agreement raises hopes for a de-escalation in a conflict that intensified dramatically in recent days, as the US bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities and Tehran attacked a US base in Qatar.
“In light of the achievement of the objectives of the operation, and in full coordination with President Trump, Israel has agreed to the President’s proposal for a bilateral ceasefire,” he said.
Waves of missiles
A fragile peace appeared to take hold early on Tuesday, with reports of hostilities ceasing following six waves of missile launches by Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi implied the strikes were launched just before a 07.30 GMT deadline announced by Trump.
“The military operations of our powerful Armed Forces to punish Israel for its aggression continued until the very last minute,” he wrote on social media.
Several people were killed in the attacks, emergency services and the Israeli military said. Not long afterwards, Israelis were told they could leave missile shelters, and no further launches have been reported.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said Israeli strikes on the capital had halted, calling the calm “a promising indication about the prospect of the ceasefire”.
But he noted that the situation remains fragile, with Iran, like Israel, having pledged to strike back in case there is any resumption of attacks against it.
U.S. President Donald Trump said a ceasefire between Iran and Israel was in effect Tuesday after the deal initially faltered, and the American leader expressed deep frustration with both sides.
Israel had earlier accused Iran of launching missiles into its airspace after the truce was supposed to take effect, and the Israeli finance minister vowed that “Tehran will tremble.”
The Iranian military denied firing on Israel, state media reported, but explosions boomed and sirens sounded across northern Israel in the morning, and an Israeli military official said two Iranian missiles were intercepted.
Trump told reporters at the White House before departing for a NATO summit that, in his view, both sides had violated the nascent agreement. He had particularly strong words for Israel, a close ally, while suggesting Iran may have fired on the country by mistake.
But later he said the deal was saved.
“ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly “Plane Wave” to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!” Trump said in his Truth Social post.
Indeed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he held off on tougher strikes against Iran after speaking to Trump.
The conflict, now in its 12th day, began with Israel targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites, saying it could not allow Tehran to develop atomic weapons and that it feared the Islamic Republic was close. Iran has long maintained that its program is peaceful.
Many worried the war might widen after the U.S. joined the attacks by dropping bunker-buster bombs over the weekend and Israel expanded the kinds of targets it was hitting.
But after Tehran launched a limited retaliatory strike on a U.S. military base in Qatar on Monday, Trump announced the ceasefire.
Israel accuses Iran of violating the truce, Iran denies that
The deal got off to a rocky start.
An Israeli military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with military regulations said Iran launched two missiles at Israel hours into the tenuous ceasefire. Both were intercepted, the official said.
Iranian state television reported that the military denied firing missiles after the start of the ceasefire — while condemning Israel for predawn strikes of its own.
One of those attacks killed a high-profile nuclear scientist, Mohammad Reza Sedighi Saber, at his father-in-law’s residence in northern Iran, Iranian state TV reported.
As Trump spoke to reporters at the White House before departing for the NATO summit, he expressed disappointment with both sides.
Iran “violated it, but Israel violated it too,” Trump said. ”I’m not happy with Israel.”
Trump’s frustration was palpable, using an expletive to hammer home his point.
“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,” he said.
Later, however, he announced that Israel had backed off its threat to attack Tehran and would turn its jets around.
Netanyahu’s office said Israel struck an Iranian radar site in response to the Iranian missile attack early Tuesday, but Israeli forces held off on something bigger.
Following Trump’s conversation with Netanyahu, “Israel refrained from additional attacks,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Breakthrough announced after hostilities spread
Netanyahu said Israel agreed to a bilateral ceasefire with Iran, in coordination with Trump, after the country achieved all of its war goals, including removing the threat of Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
It’s unclear what role Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s leader, played in the talks. He said earlier on social media that he would not surrender.
Trump said Tuesday that he wasn’t seeking regime change in Iran, two days after floating the idea himself in a social media post.
“I don’t want it,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “Regime change takes chaos and, ideally, we don’t want to see much chaos.”
Before the ceasefire was announced, Israel’s military said Iran launched 20 missiles toward Israel. Police said they damaged at least three densely packed residential buildings in the city of Beersheba. First responders said they retrieved four bodies from one building and were searching for more. At least 20 people were injured.
Conflict has killed hundreds
In Israel, at least 28 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the war. Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 974 people and wounded 3,458 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists.
The group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from Iranian unrest, said of those killed, it identified 387 civilians and 268 security force personnel.
The U.S. has evacuated some 250 American citizens and their immediate family members from Israel by government, military and charter flights that began over the weekend, a State Department official said.
There are roughly 700,000 American citizens, most of them dual U.S.-Israeli citizens, believed to be in Israel.
International relief
After mounting fears of regional spillover from the war between Israel and Iran, the international community appeared to breathe a sigh of relief at news of a truce.
"If a ceasefire has indeed been achieved, this can only be welcomed," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that Russia hoped "that this will be a sustainable ceasefire".
French President Emmanuel Macron said it was a "very good thing that President Trump is calling for a ceasefire", but warned that "the situation remains very fragile".
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged both sides to adhere to Trump's proposal, adding that if the deal succeeded, "then it will be a very positive development that can make the Middle East and the world safer".
Saudi Arabia also welcomed the truce announcement, while China urged the two sides "return to the correct path of political resolution".
