IRAN launched multiple waves of missile strikes on Israel on Tuesday, hours after United States President Donald Trump declared a five-day ceasefire.
This was revealed by the Israeli military, which said missile attacks set off air raid sirens across Israel, including in Tel Aviv, where a multi-storey apartment building was left with large, gaping holes, without explaining whether the damage resulted from a direct strike or falling debris from an intercepted missile.
Israel’s Fire and Rescue Service said crews were searching for civilians believed to have been trapped in one building in Tel Aviv, while also locating others sheltering inside a separate damaged structure.
The Israel’s military said on Tuesday that its fighter jets launched a major wave of strikes in central Tehran on Monday, hitting key command centres, including sites linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence wing and Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. It added that more than 50 additional targets were struck overnight, including ballistic missile storage facilities and launch sites.
The ICIR reported that Trump on Monday said the United States and Iran held “very good and productive” discussions aimed at a “complete and total resolution of hostilities in the Middle East.”
Trump told reporters that his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner who had been engaged in pre-war negotiations with Iran, held talks with a senior Iranian official into Sunday evening and were set to continue discussions on Monday.
He added that following the discussions, he would delay for five days a planned strike on Iran’s power plants, an action he had threatened if Tehran failed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran, in response, threatened that it would target infrastructure belonging to US allies in the Middle East
However, Iran’s Parliament Speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, whom an Israeli official and two other sources identified as the Iranian-side interlocutor in the talks, wrote on X that no negotiations had taken place.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said they were launching new attacks on US targets, dismissing Trump’s remarks as “psychological operations” that were “worn out” and had no effect on Tehran’s campaign.
According to Reuters, a European official noted that no direct negotiations had taken place between Washington and Tehran, with countries including Egypt, Pakistan and several Gulf states instead acting as intermediaries.
The official noted that a Pakistani official and another source said that direct talks aimed at ending the war could be held in Islamabad this week.
According to the Pakistani official, US Vice President JD Vance, along with Witkoff and Kushner, are expected to meet Iranian representatives following a call between Trump and Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, noting that the White House confirmed the call.
Iranian media also reported that President Masoud Pezeshkian and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had discussed the war’s implications for regional and global security.
Iran has effectively shut the strategic waterway, through which about 20 per cent of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies pass, since the war with the US and Israel began on February 28. The conflict has already claimed more than 2,000 lives.
Trump’s decision to step back had earlier lifted equities and pushed oil prices sharply below $100 a barrel, reversing a market slump triggered by his weekend threats and Iran’s warnings of retaliation, but those gains came under pressure on Tuesday after Iran’s parliament speaker denied that any negotiations had taken place, casting doubt on the market’s earlier optimism.
On Tuesday, US Treasury yields climbed and the dollar recovered as markets continued to absorb the shock of energy supply risks tied to Iran’s threat to shipping in the strait.
Brent crude futures rose 4.2 per cent to $104.21 a barrel, rebounding from a roughly 10 per cent drop the previous day, while US crude gained 4.3 per cent to $91.93 per barrel.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.