BEERSHEBA: A tentative truce faltered Tuesday when Israel vowed to retaliate after saying Iran launched missiles into its airspace more than two hours after the ceasefire was supposed to take effect.
Iran’s military denied firing on Israel, state media reported — but explosions boomed and sirens sounded across northern Israel midmorning. Earlier, both Israel and Iran had accepted the ceasefire plan to end their 12-day war.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called the missiles a violation of the ceasefire and instructed Israel's military to resume “the intense operations to attack Tehran and to destroy targets of the regime and terror infrastructure.”
The shaky agreement was announced early Tuesday morning by U.S. President Donald Trump after Tehran launched a limited retaliatory missile attack on a U.S. military base in Qatar on Monday.
Between Trump's post and the start of the ceasefire, Israel launched a blitz of airstrikes targeting sites across Iran before dawn and Iran replied with an onslaught of missiles that killed at least four people in Israel.
Israel said it had intercepted the midmorning barrage of missiles that came hours into the truce.
“Tehran will tremble,” Israeli Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich wrote on X after the missiles were launched.