Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – US-Israel war on Iran, Israel, Iran, US foreign policy, Strait of Hormuz, Donald Trump, Houthis, Benjamin Netanyahu, Lebanon, Middle East and north Africa, World news
Title – Israel and Iran exchange strikes as Middle East crisis threatens to escalate
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/lorenzo-tondo,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/mark-saunokonoko,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/patrickwintour
Link – Israel and Iran exchange strikes as Middle East crisis threatens to escalate
Publish date – 2026-06-08T09:22:15.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/08/israel-netanyahu-airstrikes-iran-retaliation-defies-trump
The Israeli military has launched airstrikes on Iran after the Iranians fired missiles at northern Israel in the first exchange of fire between the two countries since a ceasefire was reached on 8 April, raising fears of a return to a full-scale regional war in the Middle East.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels also fired at Israel and warned they would target Israeli-affiliated ships in the Red Sea, further escalating tension.
The Israeli strikes came in apparent defiance of Donald Trump, who told Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu , that he did not think Israel needed to respond further. He added that Netanyahu did not “call the shots”.
In a message on his Truth Social platform on Monday, Trump wrote: “Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting’. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Trump has leaned on Israel to stop its attacks in Lebanon to allow room for a deal to end the wider war with Iran, including an obscenities-filled rebuke of Netanyahu in a phone call to the Israeli leader last week. However, Israel launched strikes on the Beirut area early on Sunday , the first since the US announced a truce plan for Lebanon last week.
Iranian officials said they did not believe Israel launched its attacks on Iran without the approval of the US, rejecting any suggestion that Netanyahu had defied an instruction from Trump.
“No one believes that the Zionist regime would carry out any action without prior coordination and cooperation with the United States,” said Esmaeil Baqaei, a foreign ministry spokesperson. “It is perfectly natural that the diplomatic process initiated to put an end to this imposed war would be affected.”
The White House did not respond to messages about the Israeli strikes and whether they were done in coordination with the US.
Israel’s attacks included a strike on an Iranian petrochemical complex. The Israeli military said it had also struck and dismantled Iran’s defence systems deployed across several areas in the country.
Iranian state television reported the sound of explosions being heard in Isfahan, Karaj, Tabriz and Tehran. Officials offered no details on what had been struck, nor any information about the damage. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Israel used air-launched ballistic missiles in its attack on Monday morning, without elaborating.
The IRGC said it had targeted two military bases in Israel, describing the attacks as being part of Operation Nasr, or “Victory”. The Israeli army said it had worked to intercept a fresh wave of Iranian missiles. A series of explosions were heard in Jerusalem, where people took shelter. An Iranian missile fragment caused damage to several homes in a West Bank settlement, but no injuries were reported.
A senior US official told Associated Press that Trump had called Netanyahu to urge him not to retaliate immediately after the Iranian missile attack. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Trump believed he had convinced Netanyahu to wait.
The US president “got Bibi to hold off for the time being”, the official said. The official would not offer any other details about the call, and there was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office.
Speaking to the Financial Times before Israel hit Iran, Trump said 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, adding that he called “all the shots”, not Netanyahu.
Houthi rebels announced a missile attack on Israel on Monday, the first since early April, and declared a ban on Israeli shipping in the Red Sea, raising the spectre of a return to significant disruption on the main trade route. “We declare a complete and total ban on Israeli maritime navigation in the Red Sea,” said a statement from the Houthis’ armed forces.
Trust between Iran and the US has been at a minimum for a long time, but if Tehran feels there is evidence the White House covertly endorsed the Israeli attack there is likely to be consequences for the stalled peace talks that Trump has claimed could end in a deal in days.
The Iranian negotiators have been under pressure internally from a small but vocal group of hardliners based in the parliament to abandon the talks altogether. Others claim specific aspects of the deal are too ambiguous and need to be tightened.
Ehsan Movahedian, an international relations specialist at Tehran University, pointed to videos he claimed proved the US did not just approve but was involved in Israel’s attack on Iran.
‘Footage shows the launch of cruise missiles from the eastern Mediterranean toward Iran, meaning Trump has lied again,” he wrote. “American warships are deployed in the eastern Mediterranean … Israel lacks the capability to launch long-range ship-fired cruise missiles.”
Brent crude jumped $3.50 to $96.59 a barrel on Monday, while stocks in Asia, a region heavily dependent on oil imports, fell sharply in early trading.
Additional reporting by Associated Press and Reuters