Iran and Israel exchanged strikes starting late Sunday, in the first such hostilities since a cease-fire paused the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran in April.
Iran launched ballistic missiles at Israel late Sunday after an Israeli attack in Lebanon against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group. The Israeli military said that it had intercepted the missiles and announced around 11 p.m. local time that citizens were free to leave shelters. The government said schools would be closed nationwide on Monday as a precautionary measure.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said the missile barrages were a response to Israel’s attack on Hezbollah. It said its acceptance of a cease-fire with the United States and Israel had been conditioned on a cease-fire on all fronts. “Tonight’s operation was a warning, and if aggressions are repeated, the responses will be broader,” the Guards Corps said in a statement.
Hours later, early Monday local time, the Israeli military said it had struck military targets in Iran. Iranian state media reported that explosions were heard in Tehran, the capital, and the cities of Tabriz and Isfahan.
Earlier, President Trump told Axios that he had planned to call Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to tell him not to respond to the Iranian missiles. The Financial Times reported that the president said that Mr. Netanyahu had no choice but to accept a deal with Iran.
“I call all the shots,” the newspaper reported Mr. Trump as saying in an interview. “He doesn’t call the shots.
Still, the Israel military suggested it was eager to return fire and said early Monday that it had done so.
“The Iranian terror regime committed a grave error,” Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, spokesman for the Israeli military, said in a televised briefing before the strikes on Iran. He said Iran was “trying to forge a new equation by launching directly at our territory” in response to Israeli action in Lebanon. “We will not allow that,” he added.
Israel had joined the United States in a surprise attack on Iran in late February, but Israel and Iran had left each other alone since the April cease-fire as the United States sought a peace deal with Tehran. Although the Israeli and Lebanese governments last week agreed to renew a cease-fire, Hezbollah rejected that truce.
More than 3,600 people in Lebanon have been killed since fighting erupted in March, and hundreds since the cease-fire there. Some 30 Israeli soldiers have been killed.
Mr. Netanyahu, who is behind in the polls heading into a re-election fight, has faced fierce political pressure from citizens of northern Israel who have been plagued by Hezbollah’s rockets, drones and missiles. He warned last week that he would order attacks on Beirut if Hezbollah attacked Israeli territory again.
Mr. Trump told Fox News Sunday that the latest Israeli strike on Beirut had not been coordinated with the United States, and that he was “not happy about it,” the network reported. As for Iran, Fox reported, Mr. Trump said his message was: “You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough. Get back to the table and make a deal.”
Here’s what else to know:
Oil prices rise: The volley of Iranian missiles sent oil prices up about 2.9 percent to $95.79, the latest economic jolt from the war. After the initial U.S. and Israeli attacks in February, Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for the transportation of petroleum products. The throttling of shipping traffic, coupled with the subsequent U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, set off a surge in fuel prices.
Shirin Hakim and Yan Zhuang contributed reporting.