• US president tells Netanyahu to be careful or ‘you will be on your own’
• Israel hits petrochemical complex following Iranian missile barrages to avenge Beirut strikes
• Tehran warns of stronger response if Lebanon attacks continue
• Pezeshkian insists his country is still at negotiating table
• Houthis announce ‘total ban’ on Israeli shipping in Red Sea
TEHRAN: Iran and Israel said on Monday that hostilities between them had halted, after the two countries exchanged strikes that threatened to reignite the Middle East war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the “fire on that front is contained” hours after Tehran said it had stopped its military action against Israel.
Tehran fired missiles towards Israeli territory late on Sunday, calling them retaliation for Israeli attacks on strongholds of Hezbollah on the outskirts of Beirut.
Israel then said it had struck targets at the Mahshahr petrochemical complex in southwest Iran that were allegedly used to produce and export raw materials for Iran’s missile programme. A provincial official told Iranian media that parts of the plant were damaged.
Of 15 people injured across Iran in the latest Israeli attacks, 14 were in Mahshahr County, but no deaths were reported, Iran’s National Emergency Organisation said.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had retaliated with a strike aimed at a similar Israeli plant in the city of Haifa.
Iran has sought for weeks to link the wider Middle East truce, in place since April 8, to Israel’s war against Hezbollah, warning that attacks on Lebanon would force it to act.
It said on Monday it would attack again if Israel persisted with its strikes in Lebanon. Netanyahu warned in turn that should Iran “make the mistake of resuming attacks against us, we will respond with full force”.
Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz insisted that the campaign in Lebanon would carry on regardless and said Israel would strike the Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut in retaliation for each attack on northern Israel by the militant group.
Trump, who has reportedly grown increasingly exasperated with Netanyahu, had earlier urged both sides to stop “shooting” and said that “final negotiations” towards peace would proceed “subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way”.
Trump told Axios in an interview that he warned the Israeli prime minister that he might find himself fighting alone if he went back to war with Iran. “I said, ‘Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon,’” Axios quoted Trump as telling Netanyahu. The Israeli premier, though, said in a televised statement he had told Trump that “Israel has a full right to self-defence, and we are exercising it as required”.
In a sign that both sides expected the ceasefire to hold, Israel’s education ministry announced that schools would reopen on Tuesday, having closed because of the missile threat, while Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation said it was reopening the country’s airspace.
Oil prices surged more than five per cent on worries that the war would resume, with hopes now punctured of a rapid end to the standoff that has seen shipments of the Gulf’s oil and gas all but halted through the Strait of Hormuz.
‘Much more severe’
Iran fired nearly 30 missiles at Israel overnight, according to the Israeli military, and Israel responded by targeting military sites in Iran.
No casualties were immediately reported in either Israel or Iran after the exchange of fire.
Announcing the end of its attacks, Iran’s military command said, “should acts of hostility continue, including in southern Lebanon, much more severe and crushing measures than before will follow”.
But Katz said Israel’s armed forces “will continue to operate in Lebanon” against Hezbollah.
“We categorically reject Iran’s threats. Any Iranian attempt to link Lebanon and Iran and attack Israel will be met with great force, as happened yesterday,” Katz said.
‘Still at negotiating table’
The strikes also came at a critical moment for diplomatic efforts to end the conflict involving mediator Pakistan.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei warned at a press conference in Tehran on Monday morning that diplomacy was continuing but could be affected by the fighting. As he was speaking at the foreign ministry, a huge explosion shook the building, followed by repeated explosions believed to be from air defence systems.
Iranian President Masoud Pezehskian posted on X that Tehran was still “at the negotiating table”.
“Diplomacy and defence are the two wings of national power; we have neither left the battlefield nor the negotiating table,” Pezeshkian said, adding that Tehran “will not retreat in the face of any threat”.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, said the US is “neither seeking a ceasefire nor seeking dialogue”.
On a message posted on his Telegram channel, he said: “Tehran should respond “decisively to defend the rights of the Iranian people.”
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthi rebels also announced a missile attack on Israel on Monday and declared a ban on Israeli shipping in the Red Sea, raising the spectre of a return to major disruption on the key route.
The Houthis harassed cargo ships in the vital seaway during the Israel-Hamas war, forcing many companies into a lengthy detour around the tip of southern Africa.
“We declare a complete and total ban on Israeli maritime navigation in the Red Sea,” said a statement from the Houthis’ armed forces. “We consider all enemy movements to be legitimate military targets for our armed forces from the moment this statement is issued.”
The Houthis, who joined the Middle East war in support of Iran in March, had not announced a missile attack on Israel since the ceasefire began on April 8.
They said they “launched a missile barrage targeting sensitive Israeli enemy targets”.
Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2026