Iran launched multiple waves of missiles at Israel, the Israeli military said, after US President Donald Trump postponed the bombing of Iran’s power plants and other energy infrastructure because of what he described as productive talks with Iranian officials.
The missiles triggered air raid sirens in Israel, including Tel Aviv, where gaping holes were torn through a multi-storey apartment building. It was not immediately clear if the damage was caused by a direct hit or debris from an interception.
Israel’s Fire and Rescue Service said they were searching for civilians trapped in one building in Tel Aviv and discovered civilians in a shelter in another damaged building.
Israel’s military said this morning that its fighter jets had carried out a large wave of strikes in central Tehran yesterday, targeting key command centres, including facilities associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence arm and the Iranian Intelligence Ministry.
It said more than 50 additional targets were hit overnight, including ballistic missile storage and launch sites.
Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform yesterday that the US and Iran had held “very good and productive” conversations about a “complete and total resolution of hostilities in the Middle East”.
As a result, Mr Trump said he was postponing for five days a plan to hit Iran’s power plants, which he had threatened if Iran did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz. However, the pause only applies to Iran’s energy sites and US strikes on the country continue, US news outlet Semafor reported, citing a US official.
A man cleans a billboard featuring Iran’s late supreme leaders next to newly elected supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei
Iran has effectively closed the key strait, a conduit for about 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, since the US and Israel launched their war on 28 February.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in the war. Iran responded to the threat, saying it would hammer infrastructure of US allies in the Middle East, raising the prospect of an extreme disruption to global energy supplies.
Mr Trump’s step-back sent share prices higher and oil prices sharply lower to below $100 a barrel, but those gains were in jeopardy, however, after Iran’s powerful parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf – who an Israeli official and two other sources familiar with the matter said was the interlocutor in the talks on the Iranian side -said no negotiations had taken place.
“No negotiations have been held with the US, and fake news isused to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped,” he wrote on X.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said they were launching fresh attacks on US targets, and described Mr Trump’s words as “psychological operations” that were “worn out” and having no impact on Tehran’s fight.
This morning, US Treasury yields pushed higher and the dollar regained lost ground as the world continues to grapple with an energy shock triggered by Iran’s threat to shipping in the strait.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 4.2% to $104.21 a barrel, reversing some of their 10% slide from yesterday, while US crude CLc1 rose 4.3% to $91.93 per barrel.
“The underlying situation is still incredibly fragile or flammable,” said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore.
Mr Trump told reporters his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who had been negotiating with Iran before the war, had held discussions with a top Iranian official into the evening on Sunday.
“We have had very, very strong talks. We’ll see where they lead. We have major points of agreement, I would say, almost all points of agreement,” he said yesterday.
A European official said that while there had been no direct negotiations between the two nations, Egypt, Pakistan and Gulf states were relaying messages.
A Pakistani official and a second source told Reuters that direct talks on ending the war could be held in Islamabad as soon as this week.
The Pakistani official said US Vice President JD Vance, as well as Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner, were expected to meet Iranian officials in Islamabad this week, following a call between Mr Trump and Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir.
The White House confirmed the call.
Donald Trump said that the US and Iran had held ‘very good and productive’ conversations
Iranian media reported that Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif discussed the impact of the war on regional and global security.
“If the parties desire, Islamabad is always willing to host talks. It has consistently advocated for dialogue and diplomacy to promote peace and stability in the region,” Tahir Andrabi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry, told Reuters.
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs
Although there was no immediate confirmation that talks had taken place as described by Mr Trump, Iran’s foreign ministry described initiatives to reduce tensions.
It said Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had reviewed developments related to the Strait of Hormuz with his Omani counterpart and agreed to continue consultations between the two countries.