Israel and Iran traded fire early Monday in retaliatory strikes that threatened to drag the wider Middle East back into a full-scale regional war, while Yemen’s Houthi militants also fired at Israel and warned they would target Israel-affiliated ships in the Red Sea, further escalating tension.
Israel launched strikes on central and western Iran early Monday in response to missile fire from Tehran, in the most serious crossfire since an April 8 ceasefire was reached in the Iran war. Iran retaliated with waves of attacks, and explosions could be heard in central Israel as Israeli air defenses sought to intercept incoming Iranian fire.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it had targeted two military bases in Israel, describing the attack as being part of Operation Nasr, or “Victory.” The Guard said it launched the missiles after Israel targeted radar sites in three areas of Iran.
Tehran warned of retaliation on Sunday after Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs without warning in defiance of Washington’s request days ago to stand down.
Monday marked the 100th day of the Iran war, launched Feb. 28 when Israel and the United States killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian leaders. The war raged until reaching a nominal ceasefire on April 8, but a permanent end to the hostilities have been challenged by Iran's chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas once passed in peacetime, as well as fighting between Israel and the Lebanese Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
With global energy supplies threatened, Iran still holding a vast stockpile of highly enriched uranium and even the Houthis getting involved in the fighting Monday, the risks of the war fully erupting again appears to be rising.
Houthis claim attack on Israel
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis claimed an attack on Israel and said Israel-affiliated vessels would again be a target in the Red Sea, putting the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting them in danger.
The statement from Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree was broadcast on the Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel. During the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis killed at least nine mariners and sunk four ships in over 100 attacks, often targeting vessels with tangential or no ties at all to Israel.
The assaults upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which about $1 trillion of goods passed each year before the war.
They also greatly disrupted transits through Egypt’s Suez Canal, which links the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. The canal remains one of the top providers of hard currency for Egypt, providing it $10 billion in 2023 as its wider economy struggles.
Israel strikes Iran
Iranian state television reported the sound of explosions being heard in Isfahan, Karaj, Tabriz and Tehran, without immediately elaborating. A witness in Tehran described hearing at least one large blast somewhere to the west of the country’s capital city.
Iran closed the airspace around Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, the country’s main airfield, after the Israeli attack.
Officials offered no details on what had been struck, nor any damage information. The Revolutionary Guard said that Israel used air-launched ballistic missiles in its attack Monday morning, without elaborating.
The semiofficial Fars and Mehr news agencies said Israeli strikes had hit a petrochemical factory in city of Mahshahr in Khuzestan province. It did not elaborate on damage.
The Israeli military later confirmed the strike on the petrochemical plant.
Earlier Monday, sirens sounded across Israel after its military said a missile launched from Yemen targeted the country, without elaborating. Israel’s rescue services said there were no reports of casualties or impacts from the launch from Yemen.
Trump says ‘I call the shots,’ not Israel
The White House did not respond to messages about the Israeli strikes and whether they were done in coordination with the US.
A senior US official on Sunday said US President Donald Trump had called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to urge him not to retaliate immediately for the Iranian missile attack. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private phone call, said that Trump believed he had convinced Netanyahu to wait.
Trump “got Bibi to hold off for the time being,” the official said. The official would not offer any other details of the call, and there was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office.
For days, negotiations between Iran and the United States over the fragile ceasefire in the war had been stalled by the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel now occupies southern Lebanon and had moved into areas of the country it hadn't held in a quarter century, leading to fears about them further widening their campaign.
On Sunday, Israel launched airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs. Iran retaliated with its own strike on Israel, which led to Monday morning's attack by Israel on Iran.
Trump earlier told a Fox News Channel reporter that he wanted the Iranians to stop firing missiles and return to the negotiating table. He also said that Israel’s strikes in Lebanon earlier Sunday were not coordinated with the US and “I’m not happy about it.”
Speaking to The Financial Times before the Israeli strikes on Iran, Trump insisted he dictated terms to Netanyahu on how the war should be prosecuted.
“He won’t have any choice,” Trump told the newspaper in a telephone interview. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He (Netanyahu) doesn’t call the shots.”
