On Sunday morning, Israel and Iran escalated their tensions further as former U.S. president Donald Trump called upon both nations to negotiate an end-game and broker peace. A missile hit Haifa early Sunday as Israel and Iran continued their deadly standoff, even as former president George HW Bush called on both nations to find ways of making an accord and end this deadly stalemate.
Iran Launches Missile Strikes across Israel Late Thursday evening, Iran fired another wave of ballistic missiles towards northern Israel, including one striking near Haifa’s oil refinery and injuring at least two civilians, as well as damage to infrastructure (nypost.com and Wikipedia +1) which caused at least some property damage (source).
At the weekend, Iranian missile attacks hit several Israeli towns including Bat Yam, Rehovot, Rishon LeZion, Tel Aviv and Haifa; at least 10 civilian deaths and several dozen injuries resulted from these shelling attacks; according to The Times (UK) this was reported.
Israeli airstrikes as part of Operation Rising Lion on June 13 struck over 100 sites across Iran, targeting nuclear facilities and senior military commanders including nuclear facilities and senior nuclear experts such as Hossein Salami from IRGC as well as Armed Forces Chief Mohammad Bagheri as well as other top officials (Sources:AP News/En.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Hossein Salami (source).)
Iran’s Health Ministry reported at least 224 killed, though activist groups suggest this number could be higher (reuters.com/+1 and apnews.com/+1 respectively).
Civilians Caught in the Crossfire
The intensifying exchanges have taken an enormous toll on civilians; recent Israeli strikes in Iran alone killed at least 78 civilians – among them nuclear scientists, military figures and noncombatants (see The Times.co.uk/news for details and Reuter’s for news)
Israeli strikes against Iranian targets have killed civilians, including children in Bat Yam and Haifa; according to The Australian, The Times and Wikipedia this incident took place before President Donald Trump entered the fray with his statements against Tehran’s actions in Syria and Lebanon. Trump entered this fray without actually supporting it or his policies at that time; instead entering as an outside player at some stage during a debate which led to him supporting both parties during that conflict despite their differences of opinions about him entering it as well as with regards to sanctions being placed upon Iran by both countries before entering into negotiations about how best deal with Iran for any strikes they commit, killing civilians including children living near these cities as well as incidents occuring within Israel, killing more civilians due to Iranian strikes on targets located between Bat Yam and Haifa as part of their attacks retaliations campaign; Trump enters into this argument about Iran retaliation as they joins forces allowing Iranian attacks by striking their military campaign in order to strike back with Iran but will enters this diplomatic disagreement on both fronts before joining in any potential military confrontation, or otherwise intervening either side ensuing sanctions on either side in order to gain leverage ensuing one or both sides with regard to Iran ensuing each side in relation to an incident occurring somewhere along their borders or just between civilian populations (Haifa) whils en the two states for Iranian strikes to destroy those struck against Iranian strikes on civilians while entering into another one against haifa by striking the IDF over Haifa against Israeli strikes also entering in order whereas both in terms of course ene. Trump enter the fray against their counterpart.
Trump expressed hope at the G7 Summit for “there to be a deal”, and underlined the need for resolution of ongoing trade conflicts and other disputes. Here is his address at youtube.com (below). For more on this story see reuters.com (+2).
He noted that sometimes “they must fight it out,” yet encouraged both parties to negotiate in good faith. For this to work successfully, however, they would need to use both channels (Youtube/Reuters).
He reiterated his reaffirmation of Iran-Israel negotiations via Truth Social post, drawing parallels with India-Pakistan normalization (wsj.com and nypost.com respectively).
However, President Donald Trump reportedly rejected an Israeli proposal to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei as “Iran had not killed any Americans yet”, as reported by Reuter’s, Wsj and NY Post (all sites offer multiple versions) and New York Post (+2). Global ripples ensued from these actions by President Donald Trump.
Global markets reacted swiftly; oil prices spiked amid rising risk of regional disruption and at the G7 summit leaders stressed de-escalation as top summit priority; German Chancellor Merz called the crisis his top summit priority, seeking to prevent nuclear escalation while creating diplomatic openings, according to Reuter’s.com
Iranian officials, however, categorically rejected ceasefire talks while under attack reuters.com+1 thetimes.co.uk+1
What’s Next?
Both nations have indicated they will not back down from their positions on either nuclear proliferation and military engagement in Syria and Iran, respectively. Israel has warned of further strikes until its perceived existential nuclear threat has been removed while Iran threatened retaliatory strikes by opening “the gates of hell”, according to Reuter’s.com
Reports indicate the United States is helping Israel intercept Iranian missiles, though President Donald Trump maintains that America has not directly participated in Israeli operations (see Reuter’s/Youtube).
With both sides showing no signs of backing down, the next 48 hours could determine whether this exchange escalates into full-scale regional warfare or whether mounting diplomatic pressure leads to a ceasefire agreement.
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