Kareem Chehayeb and Hassan Ammar
Updated ,first published
Jerusalem: Israel says Iran has fired missiles at it in the first such attack since a ceasefire began in early April, hampering efforts to broker a deal to end the war.
Iran’s state media confirmed the launch of the missiles and cited the military as saying that “if Israel responds to Iran’s attacks or does not stop its attacks on Lebanon, Iran’s attacks will continue”.
Israel’s military said it had intercepted all missiles from Iran but warned “the defense is no laughing matter”, adding that sirens were heard in several parts of the country. Multiple explosions were heard in northern Israel, but there was no immediate comment from Iran-backed Hezbollah, which often fires in the area.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage in Israel. The White House did not immediately respond to messages about the missile launch.
Tehran had warned of retaliation after Israel on Sunday attacked the southern suburbs of Beirut in defiance of Washington’s call to withdraw. Israel called it retaliation for Iran-backed Hezbollah’s shelling in northern Israel earlier in the day.
The Israeli attack on Beirut came a few days after the governments of Lebanon and Israel agreed to a ceasefire in talks organized by the United States, although Hezbollah rejected the agreement. The strike on a residential building killed two people and wounded 20, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
Iran had warned that an attack on Beirut would restart a full-scale war in the Middle East, even as Pakistan tried to restart talks between Tehran and Washington. Iran wants a comprehensive agreement to end the war in Lebanon.
“US forces throughout the Middle East remain alert and ready,” the US commander in chief wrote on X shortly before the missile launch.
Associated Press reporters also heard loud explosions in the air over Damascus. Syrian state media said the increase was due to Israeli air defenses. Syria has temporarily closed its southern airspace for 12 hours and suspended operations at Damascus airport.
Iraq has also temporarily closed its airspace and suspended air navigation for reasons related to air traffic safety following the Iranian rocket launch, aviation officials told Reuters on Sunday. The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority has said that Iraqi airspace will continue to be closed for 72 hours.
Israel’s attacks and ground invasions in Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah, and the militant group’s resistance to disarmament, have hampered a general agreement to end the war in the Middle East. Iran says any deal must include an end to fighting in Lebanon.
The White House did not comment on the Israeli strike in Beirut. Israel on Monday had announced it would attack the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, but urgent negotiations through Washington halted that on the condition that Hezbollah stop targeting Israeli border towns.
Hezbollah on Sunday night claimed responsibility for opening fire on Israel earlier in the day.
Hizbullah wants direct talks between Lebanon and Israel to end and instead supports Iran’s position that the general ceasefire agreement between Tehran and Washington includes the situation in Lebanon.
Mediation efforts on the landmark accord continued on Sunday when Pakistan’s interior minister visited Iran to meet with officials and Egypt said its foreign minister and his Qatari counterpart discussed “suggested elements” of a possible deal, without elaborating.
US President Donald Trump, in an interview recorded on Friday and broadcast on Sunday by NBC’s Meet the Journalistshe said that “I would like to see Lebanon have a better life. I would like to see more surgical strikes against Hezbollah. I think it should be more surgical”.
Trump added that he “doesn’t need” Lebanon to be part of a short-term agreement to extend the ceasefire in the Iran war.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since the war began on March 2 when Hezbollah fired missiles into northern Israel, two days after Israel and the United States began attacking Iran. More than 1 million people in Lebanon have fled their homes. The fighting has resulted in the deaths of 31 Israeli soldiers and three civilians.
At the same time, Iran continued to insist on holding the Strait of Hormuz and the United States continued to block Iranian ports, while shipments of oil, natural gas and fertilizers were affected and the world economy was in pain.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces elections later this year, wants to continue the Israeli offensive until he believes Hezbollah is no longer a threat.
Pakistan’s interior minister was in Tehran on Sunday. Mohsin Naqvi was delivering a message to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei from Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, according to Iran’s IRNA news agency. There were no details on the contents of the message.
Khamenei has not been seen in public since he was named the ruler of the Islamic Republic after his father was killed on February 28, the first day of the war.
Naqvi met with Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni late Saturday and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday, according to official Iranian media.
Pakistani authorities have said that Islamabad, supported by regional countries including Qatar, Turkey and Egypt, is working to help resolve differences between the United States and Iran.
In Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Bader Abdelatty and his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani discussed “suggested aspects” of a possible agreement between the United States and Iran, Egypt’s foreign ministry said, without elaborating.
