Israel and Iran have traded fire in their first attacks since the US struck a ceasefire two months ago, threatening to drag the Middle East back into a full-scale war.
The war, launched by the US and Israel in late February with strikes on Iran, has shaken the global economy, driven energy prices up around the world and made many basics, including food, more expensive.
Officials have been unable to turn the ceasefire, agreed on April 8, into a deal to permanently end the conflict.
During the truce, Iran has maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial passage for the world’s oil and natural gas and the primary reason global fuel prices skyrocketed.
Israel has continued to strike Hezbollah, Iran’s ally in Lebanon, and pushed deeper into that country. And on Monday, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, another Iranian ally, fired at Israel and warned they would target Israel-affiliated ships in the Red Sea.
With little apparent progress in the peace talks, Israel and Iran firing at each other again, and the Houthis joining the fight, the risk of the war fully erupting again appeared higher than at any point since the ceasefire.
In his first comments since the exchange of fire, US President Donald Trump wrote online: “Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting’.”
Two regional officials said concerted diplomatic efforts were under way on Monday to salvage the ceasefire between Iran and the US.
Officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan and Qatar have urged the Trump administration to pressure Israel to rein in its strikes on Iran and Beirut. They have also urged Iranian officials to stop attacks on Israel, they said.
One of the officials, who is involved in mediation efforts between Iran and the US, said the Pakistan-led mediators were furious about the Israeli strike on Sunday on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which came while Pakistan’s interior minister was in Tehran in a fresh bid to push US-Iranian negotiations forward.
Iran launched waves of attacks on Israel on Monday, and Israel launched strikes on central and western Iran. It was their first exchange of fire since the ceasefire.
Iranian state television reported the sound of explosions being heard in Isfahan, Karaj, Tabriz and Tehran, without immediately elaborating. Iran closed the airspace around Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport after the Israeli attack.
The semi-official Fars and Mehr news agencies said Israeli strikes hit a petrochemical factory in the city of Mahshahr in the province of Khuzestan. They did not elaborate on any damage. The Israeli military later confirmed the strike on the petrochemical plant and also said it targeted truck-based missile launchers.
Israel said its strikes were in response to an Iranian missile attack. Tehran had warned on Sunday it would retaliate after Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs without warning. When Israel hit back, Iran fired again.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it had targeted two military bases in Israel, describing the attacks as being part of Operation Nasr, or “Victory”. The Revolutionary Guard said it launched the missiles after Israel targeted radar sites in three areas of Iran.
Explosions could be heard in central Israel as air defences sought to intercept incoming Iranian fire. Sirens also sounded across neighbouring Jordan.
Iran blamed the United States for the escalation.
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“No one believes that the Israeli regime would take any action without co-ordination with the United States,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said during a briefing with journalists in Tehran. “The United States bears responsibility for the Israeli regime’s aggression.”
Mr Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the war in a closely co-ordinated attack, with Israeli officials proudly boasting of unprecedented “shoulder to shoulder” co-operation throughout the conflict, which reached 100 days on Monday.
But since the first strikes, the two men have moved in opposite directions, with tensions sometimes spilling out into the open.
Mr Netanyahu appears to have openly defied Mr Trump with his strike on Sunday in Beirut and subsequent attacks in Iran, while Mr Trump has voiced his displeasure with Israel, occasionally cursing or belittling Mr Netanyahu by declaring to the Financial Times that “I call all the shots”.
The White House did not respond to messages about Monday’s Israeli strikes and whether they were done in co-ordination with the US.
The differences between the leaders appear to be rooted in the domestic considerations of each. Mr Netanyahu faces elections this autumn and is under heavy public pressure to strike back against ongoing Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel. He also is wary of appearing too subservient to Mr Trump.
The US president, meanwhile, also faces elections — for Congress in November — and is eager to wrap up a war that has jolted the global economy and raised prices for consumers.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed an attack on Israel on Monday and said Israel-affiliated vessels would again be a target in the Red Sea, putting the waterway, as well as the Gulf of Aden and the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting them, in danger.
The statement from Brigadier General Yahya Saree was broadcast on the Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel.
The threat might serve to further drive up oil prices since Saudi Arabia is using its East-West Pipeline to export oil through the Red Sea as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.
The Houthis made a similar threat during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and killed at least nine mariners and sank four ships in more than 100 attacks, often targeting vessels with tangential or no ties to Israel. The assaults upended shipping in the Red Sea.
