After two months of a fragile ceasefire that held across the Middle East, fresh violence has erupted between Israel and Iran, marking the first direct exchange of attacks since the truce took hold in April and throwing long-running diplomatic efforts to end the regional war into severe jeopardy. The escalation, which has already drawn in other regional actors and sent global energy markets swinging upward, unfolded against a backdrop of mounting tensions sparked by an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern Dahiyeh district, a stronghold of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
The sequence of violence began on Sunday, when the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the Israeli military had targeted a militant command center in the Beirut suburb, in retaliation for a earlier missile and drone attack by Hezbollah on two Israeli army barracks along the northern border. Lebanon’s national health ministry reported the strike left two people dead and another 20 injured, triggering immediate condemnation and a vow of revenge from Iran.
Shortly after, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a wave of missiles at two key Israeli air bases, Nevatim Air Base and Tel Nof Air Base, framing the strike as a justified response to what it called “Zionist regime aggression.” The Israeli military announced it had launched counter-strikes against Iranian defense installations located across multiple regions of Iran, saying it had successfully dismantled key defensive capabilities. Air raid sirens wailed across Israeli cities from Jerusalem to Netanya, with AFP correspondents in the region reporting repeated explosions as Israeli defense systems worked to intercept incoming Iranian missiles. As of Monday, no casualties have been reported on either side of the exchange.
The conflict quickly expanded to other parts of the region: Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement announced its own missile attack on Israel — the first such strike since early April — and reimposed a total ban on Israeli shipping transiting the Red Sea, reviving the threat of widespread disruption to one of the world’s busiest and most economically critical maritime trade routes. The strike that hit an Iranian petrochemical complex in the exchange also compounded existing energy market jitters.
Iran has directly blamed the United States for enabling the resumption of hostilities, arguing that Israel would not launch any major military action without prior American coordination. “No one believes that the Zionist regime would carry out any action without prior coordination and cooperation with the United States,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters in Tehran during a press conference attended by AFP. “It is perfectly natural that the diplomatic process initiated to put an end to this imposed war would be affected.” Even so, Baqaei confirmed that diplomatic consultations would continue despite the renewed fighting. Iran’s parliament speaker and chief nuclear negotiator with Washington, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, went further, saying the U.S. had given a “green light” for the Beirut strike and declaring all American and Israeli assets around the world to be legitimate military targets.
The renewed violence came as the U.S. continued efforts to push both sides toward a permanent peace deal, more than three months after the regional war erupted from joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly pushed for a negotiated end to the conflict, issued an urgent call for restraint from both sides. In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump pushed back against suggestions that Netanyahu set the pace of policy, saying “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He doesn’t call the shots.” Speaking to Fox News later, he urged Iran to de-escalate, saying “What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough, get back to the table and make a deal.”
Global powers have widely called for an immediate de-escalation. European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas urged both sides to set aside hostilities and return to negotiations. China also issued a statement calling for restraint, with foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian noting that “resuming hostilities is not in any party’s interest.”
For ordinary Iranians, the return of open conflict has compounded weeks of economic and personal uncertainty, already worsened by Iran’s ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz — the critical global chokepoint for 20% of the world’s daily oil trade — that has driven up prices across the country. The fresh outbreak of fighting sent global crude prices surging more than 5% on Monday, as investors priced in the growing risk that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed indefinitely. “I really have gone numb,” 32-year-old fitness trainer Elaheh from the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz told AFP. “Daily life? It’s a joke. Everything is horrible. We only try to survive,” she said, pointing to skyrocketing living costs.
Even amid the fighting, limited diplomatic activity continues. Over the weekend, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi traveled to Tehran to deliver what he described as a “special letter” to Iran’s Supreme Leader, according to Iranian state media. A Pakistani official confirmed Naqvi has since returned to Islamabad, and Iran says diplomatic consultations mediated by Pakistan are continuing even as open hostilities resume with Israel.