The Iran-Israel ceasefire may not have lasted very long, with Israel's defence minister reporting a 'violation'.
Both countries have been at odds for over 45 years, but things have escalated over the past few weeks with several drone and missile strikes from both sides.
Earlier this month, Israel bombed key Iranian nuclear sites because they were deemed a 'threat' to their security.
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After Iran responded with missile attacks in Israel, the US bombed their nuclear infrastructure over the weekend. Iran then retaliated in a co-ordinated attack on US bases in the Middle East yesterday (23 June).
And now, it seems Donald Trump's ceasefire announcement overnight (24 June) hasn't gone to plan.
How was the Iran-Israel ceasefire reached?
Trump enthusiastically shared a series of posts on Truth Social early Tuesday morning, claiming that a ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel had been reached.
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"On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, THE 12 DAY WAR," the 79-year-old wrote.
"This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will!"
Although attacks between both countries were reported in the lead-up and after Trump's announcement, state media in Iran and Benjamin Netanyahu's administration said they had agreed to the terms.
However, Israel's defence minister has now claimed that Iran has 'violated' the agreement.
Iran breaks ceasefire agreement, says Israel
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The Israeli military says it has identified missiles launched from Iran that were heading towards Israel.
"Defence systems are working to intercept the threat," the military said.
Israel Katz, Israel's defence minister, says he has now told the army to 'respond forcefully to Iran's violation of the ceasefire with intense strikes against regime targets in the heart of Tehran'.
At the time of writing, Iranian media has denied reports of a ceasefire violation.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council said in a statement that they are 'imposing the halt of the war' but warned that 'any further aggression will be met with a decisive, firm, and timely response by Iran'.
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As of 21 June, at least 430 people in Iran have been killed, with 3,500 injured, since the start of the war, according to Iranian state media.
Israel said that at least 24 of their people have been killed, with over 1,000 wounded.
Donald Trump's response to the broken ceasefire agreement
Earlier today (June 24), President Trump spoke to press as he was leaving for the NATO summit in The Hague and swore in an explosive rant about the two countries.
"Israel - as soon as we made the deal they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before. The biggest load that we’ve seen," he said.
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"I’m not happy with Israel. When I say ‘OK now you have 12 hours’, you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you’ve got on them.
"So I’m not happy with them, I’m not happy with Iran either, but I’m really unhappy if Israel’s going out this morning.
"... We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f**k they’re doing."
How did the Iran-Israel conflict start?
The conflict between Iran and Israel started back in 1979 when Iran had a revolution and became an Islamic republic.
Despite once having diplomatic relations, Iran's leader Ayatollah Khomeini was said to have cut off ties with Israel and has gone on to support groups such as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, both proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The conflict seriously escalated on 7 October, 2023, when Hamas killed around 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages. Israel’s military response in Gaza has since caused an estimated 55,000–56,000 Palestinian deaths, many being women and children.
The Muslim state - or Iran - backs the Palestinian cause and opposes Israel’s existence, seeing it as an occupier of Muslim land.
It has also accused the state of Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza.
With support from the US, Israel has tried to stop Iran from gaining more power in the Middle East, especially by building nuclear weapons.
Prior to 2024, the two nations fought one another through what’s known as a 'proxy war'. This means the countries never opposed each other directly, instead backing opponents to weaken each other's power.
In 2010, a virus called Stuxnet allegedly created by Israel and the US reportedly damaged Iran’s nuclear equipment. Then, later, Iran accused Israel of killing several of its nuclear scientists between 2010 and 2012.
The 2024 bombings
On 1 April 2024, Israel bombed a building next to Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria, killing some of their top generals.
This was a big deal, because embassies are usually considered protected spaces. Iran promised a serious response and launched over 300 drones and missiles at Israel, the first time it had ever attacked them directly.
Almost all of the weapons were stopped by Israel’s defences, with help from the US, UK, and France. Later that year, Israeli strikes reportedly killed leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas in Beirut and Tehran.
Everything you see going on at the moment started when Israel bombed several of Iran’s most important nuclear facilities earlier this month.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes were 'a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival', claiming Iran 'could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time'.
Topics: Donald Trump, News, Politics, US News, World News, Iran
Anish Vij