Editor’s note: This is a developing story.
Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel Sunday night following Israeli strikes on Beirut earlier in the day. It was the first Iranian attack on Israel since a ceasefire was declared in April.
President Donald Trump told Axios that he would call Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and tell him not to strike back. “I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate,” Trump said, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike, and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one.” But Israeli hardliners pushed for retaliation: Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, wrote on X: “Tehran must burn tonight.”
Shortly afterwards, a U.S. official told Axios that Trump spoke to Netanyahu.
The Israeli military said it had intercepted the missiles, and no injuries have been reported.
Tehran insists that the ceasefire covers Lebanon, where Israel is waging a deadly military campaign, and thus that both Israel and its patron the United States have violated the truce. Trump has urged Netanyahu not to authorize strikes on Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.
The Iranian strikes are seen as the biggest test yet for the fragile ceasefire to the Iran War and come just days after the U.S. brokered an Israel–Lebanon ceasefire, which the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has rejected.
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