Warning sirens sounded across several parts of Israel on Sunday, June 7, as Iran fired several rounds of missiles toward the country. Israel’s military said it intercepted all of them. Emergency services reported no casualties.
“At this time, the Israeli Air Force is operating to intercept and strike threats where necessary,” the Israel Defense Forces said, shortly before warning of another volley. Schools across the country were ordered closed for Monday.
It was the first direct Iranian strike since the April ceasefire, and it came in the 100-day conflict between the U.S. and Tehran. A brief exchange of fire followed before hostilities paused.
A warning over Lebanon
Mohsen Rezaee, a military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, told the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency that the launch was a “warning to cease their hostile actions” in Lebanon.
The attack followed a sharp turn between Israel and Hezbollah. Early Sunday, the Lebanese militia hit targets in northern Israel, and the Israeli army answered with a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs that killed two people and injured 11. Hezbollah had earlier in the week rejected a U.S.-brokered Israel-Lebanon ceasefire announced by the State Department only hours before.
Trump’s reaction
President Donald Trump told Fox News he still wants a negotiated outcome and urged Iran to return to the table. “You shot your missiles,” he was quoted as saying. “That’s enough.”
He also criticised Israel over the Beirut strikes. In an interview with Axios, he said he would press Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to hit back at Tehran. To the Financial Times he went further, saying any deal the U.S. strikes with Iran would be one Israel has to accept. “I call the shots. I call all the shots,” he said. Netanyahu “doesn’t call the shots.”
Talks stuck on frozen assets
The past week brought the worst flare-up since the truce began around April 8. Negotiations between Washington and Tehran are stalled over billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets and the Israel-Hezbollah fighting. Iran wants a ceasefire in Lebanon before any accord. A military adviser to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei told CNN that “the ball is in Trump’s court.”
Trump’s team is floating a plan to direct the frozen assets toward helping Persian Gulf allies rebuild from war damage. Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press he would not unfreeze assets or lift sanctions in an initial deal. “If they behave, if they do a good job, we start talking,” he said.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi rejected the idea in a post on X, saying the assets “are neither Washington’s war spoils nor a fund for paying its allies.” He added that Iran still demands “full compensation” for damage from the war that Israel and the U.S. started on Feb. 28.
The dispute threatens talks on extending the truce, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and the future of Iran’s nuclear program. Markets reacted at once: oil rose more than 4% intraday and Bitcoin fell below $63,000.
Sources
- Iran fires several rounds of missiles at Israel as Trump defends ceasefire
- Iran | Iran | Today's latest from Al Jazeera
- Iran fires missiles at Israel as Trump scrambles to save ceasefire, Bitcoin drops below $63K
