Israel strikes targets across Iran after missile barrage, despite Trump’s call for restraint

Israel said it struck targets across Iran after Tehran launched a barrage of missiles, in an escalation that came despite US President Donald Trump’s call for restraint. The strikes further rattled a fragile truce as the war entered its 100th day.

Explosions reported in multiple cities

Explosions were heard in three cities, including Tehran, according to Iranian state TV. The Israeli military said it struck targets in western and central Iran.

Sequence of recent attacks

The Israeli action came after Iran launched 11 missiles, all of which were intercepted with no casualties, the sources reported. Israel described its strikes as tit-for-tat action in response to Iran’s missile assault.

US and other international responses

Axios journalist Barak Ravid quoted President Trump in a phone interview saying:

“I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate… Israel had its strike and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one.”

Ravid later posted that a US official said Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, although the White House and Trump had yet to comment.

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper also urged restraint, writing on X:

“The resumption of conflict between Iran and Israel is in no one’s interest.”

Warnings and wider threats

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ali Safari told Al-Mayadeen television that Tehran’s strikes came after weeks of restraint against Israeli aggression, according to local media. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards called their attack a

“warning”

after Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier in the day and threatened broader strikes if attacks continued.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator in talks with Washington, accused the United States of having given a “green light” for the Beirut attack and said US and Israeli assets were now “legitimate targets”. The head of Iran’s military central command said Israel had “crossed all red lines” with the Beirut strike and demanded it halt its campaign in Lebanon.

Related incidents and consequences

Iran said it closed its airspace over the country’s west shortly after the attack; neighbouring Iraq and nearby Syria followed suit. Tehran also suspended all incoming flights to its international airport, local media reported.

Iran additionally launched an attack targeting headquarters of “terrorist groups” in Iraqi Kurdistan, a move described in the reporting as adding strain to hopes for lasting peace.

Local impact and diplomacy

The sharp escalation sent crude prices surging and dimmed hopes for an imminent reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which the report said had been effectively shut by Iran. An interviewee in Ahvaz told AFP:

“I really have gone numb… Daily life? It’s a joke. Everything is horrible. We only try to survive.”

There were signs of diplomatic efforts: Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi visited Tehran and said he would deliver a “special letter” from Pakistan’s army chief to Iran’s supreme leader and a message from the prime minister, according to Iranian state television. The report noted Pakistani military leader Syed Asim Munir has played a mediation role after direct negotiations in Islamabad.

Negotiations and frozen assets

Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, told CNN that negotiations with the United States were “at a deadlock” and called for the release of some $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets. President Trump told NBC he would not unfreeze Iranian assets before reaching an initial agreement, saying:

“If they behave, if they do a good job, we start talking”

.