Netanyahu says Israel accepts ceasefire and has achieved war goals against Iran

Irish Daily Mirror

5 hours ago

Israel and Iran on Tuesday accepted a ceasefire plan proposed by US President Donald Trump to end their 12-day war, after Tehran launched a retaliatory limited missile attack on a US military base in Qatar.
The acceptance of the deal by both sides came after Tehran launched a final onslaught of missiles targeting Israel that killed at least five people early on Tuesday morning, while Israel launched a blitz of airstrikes targeting sites across Iran before dawn.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had agreed to a bilateral ceasefire with Iran in co-ordination with Mr Trump.
Mr Netanyahu said that he had reported to Israel's security cabinet on Monday night that Israel had achieved all of its war goals in the 12-day operation against Iran, including removing the threat of Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
Israel also damaged Iran's military leadership and several government sites and achieved control over Tehran's skies, Mr Netanyahu said.
'Israel will respond forcefully to any violation of the ceasefire,' Mr Netanyahu said.
The Iranian barrages had sent Israelis hurrying into bomb shelters as the sun rose, killing at least five people and injuring 20 others, Israel's Magen David Adom rescue services said.
Iran on its state television announced an overall ceasefire had begun at 7.30am local time.
The barrage damaged at least three densely packed residential buildings in the city of Beersheba, police said.
First responders said they retrieved four bodies from one building and were searching for more.
Outside, the shells of burned out cars littered the streets. Broken glass and rubble covered the area. Hundreds of emergency workers gathered to search for anyone else trapped in the buildings.
Police said some people were injured even while inside their apartments' reinforced safe rooms, which are meant to withstand rockets and shrapnel but not direct hits from ballistic missiles.
The direct hit in the largest city in southern Israel came just days after the city's hospital sustained significant damage in a missile strike.
The Israeli military said people could leave bomb shelters but cautioned the public to stay close to shelter for the coming hours.
Mr Trump's announcement that Israel and Iran had agreed to a 'complete and total ceasefire' came soon after Iran launched a limited missile attack on Monday on a US military base in Qatar, retaliating for the American bombing of its nuclear sites.
The US was warned by Iran in advance, and there were no casualties.
Mr Trump's announcement on his Truth Social platform said the ceasefire beginning about midnight Washington time would bring an 'Official END' to the war.
There were no reports of Israeli strikes in Iran after 4am in Tehran. Heavy Israeli strikes continued in Iranian cities until shortly before that time.
Under the Trump plan, Israel was to halt its attacks on Iran by 1.30pm Tehran time. There was no report of Israel launching attacks against Iran since early Tuesday morning.
Writing more than an hour after the first phase of the tentative ceasefire, which called for Iran to halt its attacks, Mr Trump added: 'THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT. PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!'
Mr Trump gave the conflict between Israel and Iran a name: the '12 Day War'. That recalls the 1967 Mideast war, known by some as the 'Six Day War,' in which Israel fought a group of Arab countries including Egypt, Jordan and Syria.
Mr Trump's reference carries emotional weight for the Arab world, particularly Palestinians. In the 1967 war, Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria.
Though Israel later gave the Sinai back to Egypt, it still holds the other territories.
Mr Trump communicated directly with Mr Netanyahu to secure the ceasefire, according to a senior White House official who insisted on anonymity to discuss the Monday talks. Vice president JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff communicated with the Iranians through direct and indirect channels.
The White House has maintained that the Saturday bombing helped get the Israelis to agree to the ceasefire and that the Qatari government helped to broker the deal.
It is unclear what role Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's leader, played in the talks. He said earlier on social media that he would not surrender.
Israel's Airports Authority said Iran's barrage forced them to close the country's airspace to emergency flights for several hours.
Some flights were forced to circle over the Mediterranean Sea, according to Israeli media.
Israel's airports have been closed since the war with Iran began, but a handful of emergency flights started arriving and departing over the past few days.
By early on Tuesday, Qatar Airways resumed its flights after Qatar shut down its airspace over the Iranian attack on Al Udeid Air Base. Flight-tracking data showed commercial aircraft again flying in Qatari airspace, signalling Doha believed the threat on the energy-rich nation had passed.
In Israel, at least 29 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the war. Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 974 people and wounded 3,458 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists.
The group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from Iranian unrest such as the protests surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022, said of those killed, it identified 387 civilians and 268 security force personnel.
The US has evacuated some 250 American citizens and their immediate family members from Israel by government, military and charter flights that began over the weekend, a State Department official said.
There are roughly 700,000 American citizens, most of them dual US-Israeli citizens, believed to be in Israel.