U.S. President Donald Trump claims Israel and Iran have both violated a ceasefire shortly after he announced the agreement Monday. But on Tuesday morning, he assured that the "ceasefire is in effect" after speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Multiple outlets reported that Israel launched an airstrike on a radar facility near the Iranian capital of Tehran, while Netanyahu said that Iran had fired missiles at his country hours after the ceasefire was agreed to.
Trump told reporters Tuesday that both sides violated the agreement, saying Israel "dropped a load of bombs the likes of which I've never seen before" right after agreeing to the deal.
"I didn't like the fact that Israel unloaded right after we made the deal," Trump said. "And now I hear Israel just went out because they felt violated by one rocket that didn't land anywhere."
"We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the [expletive] they're doing," Trump was quoted as saying.
On Monday evening, Trump announced what he called a "complete and total" ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran, declaring that the violent hostilities between the two nations would wind down within hours with both sides completing their "final missions."
"Officially, Iran will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 12th Hour, Israel will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 24th Hour, an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World. During each CEASEFIRE, the other side will remain PEACEFUL and RESPECTFUL," stated the president.
"This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn't, and never will! God bless Israel, God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America, and GOD BLESS THE WORLD!"
In a social media post Tuesday morning, Trump assured that Israel has turned its planes around and the "ceasefire is in effect."
The president's ceasefire announcement came just two days after the U.S. launched air strikes at Iranian nuclear facilities in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan using bunker-buster bombs dropped by B-2 stealth bombers and Tomahawk missiles launched from submarines.
Trump had confirmed the attacks in public remarks on Saturday evening, claiming that American armed forces had "completely and fully obliterated" key nuclear facilities located in Iran.
Israel launched dozens of airstrikes on nuclear facilities in Iran earlier this month, claiming Iran had amassed enough enriched uranium to produce multiple nuclear warheads within days. The strikes led to the death or injury of several top officials in the Iranian regime. In response, Iran launched hundreds of missiles into Israel, causing several reported injuries.
In addition to the missile attack on the U.S. air base in Qatar on Monday, Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired 40 missiles at Israel, with over 80 people being injured in Tel Aviv, mostly with minor wounds.
The Iranian Health Ministry said Tuesday that at least 606 people have been killed and over 5,300 injured since Israel launched its airstrikes on June 13.
As strikes continued Tuesday morning, a ballistic missile fired by Iran struck an apartment complex in Beersheba, killing at least four people. Israeli officials told The New York Times that about 20 missiles were fired in at least four barrages nationwide in the hours after Trump announced a ceasefire agreement.
Trump spoke with Netanyahu Tuesday morning, a White House source told CNN, adding that Trump was "exceptionally firm and direct." Netanyahu's office told Reuters that Israel hadn't carried out any more strikes after he had spoken with Trump.
Despite the alleged ceasefire violations, Danny Orbach, a military historian at Hebrew University, told Fox News that he believed the conflict should still die down due to Iran's damaged military infrastructure.
"Iran cannot win this war," said Orbach. "They've lost roughly 60% of their launchers. Even if they still have around 1,000 long-range missiles, without enough functioning launchers, they can't deploy them effectively."
