Israel, Iran ceasefire holds as UN slams Israel-backed Gaza aid distribution

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President Donald Trump on Tuesday rebuffed US media reports of intel finding the US strikes on Iran only set back Tehran's nuclear program by a few months.

"THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED!" the president posted on Truth Social.

 Iran executed three men on Wednesday, after they were convicted of collaborating with Israel's spy agency Mossad and smuggling equipment used in an assassination, the judiciary's Mizan news agency reported.

 US President Donald Trump told Congress this week that the Iranian sites bombed by the U.S. housed a "nuclear weapons development program," even though US spy agencies have said no such program existed.

Trump's claim raised questions whether US intelligence backed up his decision to order the strikes on Iran on Sunday.

The Republican president made the assertion in a letter dated Monday to House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a key ally, and it was posted on the White House's website.

"United States forces conducted a precision strike against three nuclear facilities in Iran used by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for its nuclear weapons development program," Trump wrote.

The most recent US assessment, presented to Congress in March by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, said Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had not ordered the restarting of a nuclear-weapons effort shuttered in 2003.

A source with access to US intelligence reports told Reuters last week that the March assessment had not changed.

Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok produced inaccurate and contradictory responses when users sought to fact-check the Israel-Iran conflict, a study said Tuesday, raising fresh doubts about its reliability as a debunking tool.

With tech platforms reducing their reliance on human fact-checkers, users are increasingly utilizing AI-powered chatbots - including xAI's Grok-- in search of reliable information, but their responses are often themselves prone to misinformation.

"The investigation into Grok's performance during the first days of the Israel-Iran conflict exposes significant flaws and limitations in the AI chatbot's ability to provide accurate, reliable, and consistent information during times of crisis," said the study from the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) of the Atlantic Council, an American think tank.

"Grok demonstrated that it struggles with verifying already-confirmed facts, analyzing fake visuals, and avoiding unsubstantiated claims."

The DFRLab analyzed around 130,000 posts in various languages on the platform X, where the AI assistant is built in, to find that Grok was "struggling to authenticate AI-generated media."

Following Iran's retaliatory strikes on Israel, Grok offered vastly different responses to similar prompts about an AI-generated video of a destroyed airport that amassed millions of views on X, the study found.

France and its European partners are still prepared to reactivate sanctions on Iran if an agreement is not reached soon on its nuclear program, the French ambassador to the UN warned Tuesday.

"Time is running out," said Jerome Bonnnafont at a UN Security Council meeting, in reference to the October expiration of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

"We expect Iran to return to talks without delay in order to achieve a robust, verifiable and lasting diplomatic solution," he added.

Bonnafont said negotiations were the only way to "guarantee the impossibility of an Iranian military nuclear program," days after the United States conducted strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.

"France and its E3 partners (Germany and the United Kingdom) remain ready to use the leverage established by Resolution 2231, that of a 'snapback' (of sanctions), if a satisfactory agreement is not reached by summer," he warned.

UK ambassador Barbara Wood concurred, saying: "We will use all diplomatic levers at our disposal to support a negotiated outcome, and ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon."

The United States has helped about 400 US citizens and others to fly out of Israel since Saturday amid conflict with Iran and hopes to accommodate more in the coming days, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday.

"We very much know that there's still capacity, still US citizens seeking to leave Israel, that the airspace is not reliably opened up. It is incredibly dynamic," the official said.

The State Department is sharing information with over 27,000 people about leaving the region and safety and security, the official said, up from 25,000 last week.

The U.S. started some limited assisted-departure flights for US citizens, lawful permanent residents and their immediate family members on Saturday.

The official said thousands had also left Israel overland for Jordan, while several hundred had departed through Egypt over the past two days. Several thousand US citizens have gone to Cyprus on ships, mostly arranged by Birthright or other private groups.

Hundreds have left Iran through Azerbaijan, the official said. Turkmenistan has been restricting the entry of US citizens but is now allowing them in after weekend diplomatic efforts.

The State Department is aware of reports of a couple of US citizens detained in Iran in this process but has no additional information to share, the official said.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards denied earlier reports on Tuesday that there was a drone attack in the northwestern city of Tabriz, three Iranian news sites reported.

Earlier on Tuesday, Iranian media said air defences were activated in the area amid a shaky ceasefire between Israel and Iran. 

An early intelligence assessment indicated that the US military strikes on three of Iran's nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of Tehran's nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing three people briefed on it.

After days of deliberation, US forces struck Iran's three main nuclear sites on Saturday. President Donald Trump said Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities had been completely and "totally obliterated," an assertion he has since repeated.

While over a dozen bombs were dropped on two of the nuclear facilities, the Fordow Fuel Enrichment plant and the Natanz Enrichment Complex, they did not fully eliminate the sites' centrifuges and highly enriched uranium, CNN reported, citing people familiar with the early assessment.

Citing two people familiar with the assessment, CNN reported that Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium had not been destroyed.

It said the assessment was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency - Pentagon's intelligence arm - and is based on a battle damage assessment conducted by the US Central Command after the US strikes.

The report by the Defense Intelligence Agency estimated that the program was delayed less than six months, the New York Times said in another report.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the CNN report in a social media post.

Iranian airspace will remain closed until 2 pm (1030 GMT) on Wednesday despite a ceasefire taking effect with Israel, Iran's Mehr news agency reported.

"Following recent developments, the country's airspace will remain closed until 2 pm on Wednesday to ensure the security of passengers and flights," Mehr quoted transport ministry spokesman Majid Akhavan as saying late Tuesday.

Leaders of Britain, France and Germany said on Tuesday that it was now "time for diplomacy", as a shaky ceasefire began to take hold between Israel and Iran.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the NATO summit in The Hague.

"The leaders reflected on the volatile situation in the Middle East," Starmer's office said in a statement following the meeting. "Now was the time for diplomacy and for Iran to come to the negotiating table, they agreed." 

The Lebanese army said on Tuesday it had arrested the suspected leader of the Islamic State group in Lebanon after implicating him in planning several operations.

"Following a series of security, surveillance and monitoring operations, the Intelligence Directorate arrested citizen R.F., nicknamed "Qasoura", a prominent leader of the terrorist organisation Daesh," the army said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

Weapons and ammunitions were also seized.

According to the army, Qasoura took over the group's Lebanon branch after the arrest of several prominent figures in December.

The announcement comes days after a suicide bomber killed at least 25 people in a church in neighbouring Syria, with authorities there blaming IS.

US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities "effectively fulfilled our narrow objective: to degrade Iran's capacity to produce a nuclear weapon," acting US envoy to the UN Dorothy Shea told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday.

 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel had achieved a "historic victory" that would stand for generations, but it must complete its campaign against Iran's axis, defeat Hamas and bring about the return of all the hostages in Gaza.

In video remarks issued by the prime minister's office, Netanyahu said Israel never had a better friend in the White House than President Donald Trump.

Netanyahu also vowed to crush any attempt by Iran to rebuild its nuclear programme in a national address to the country after 12 days of war.

"Iran will not have a nuclear weapon," Netanyahu said after a ceasefire put a halt to airstrikes by the two countries against each other.

"We have thwarted Iran's nuclear project. And if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild it, we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt," he added.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Iran and Israel to respect the ceasefire that went into effect Tuesday after 12 days of war.

"The fighting must stop. The people of the two countries have already suffered too much," Guterres said on X, adding that he hoped the truce could be replicated in other conflicts in the region, such as the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Israel's focus will shift back to its war in the Gaza Strip after a ceasefire ended 12 days of war with Iran, the country's military chief said on Tuesday.

"Now the focus shifts back to Gaza - to bring the hostages home and to dismantle the Hamas regime," chief of staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said in a statement shared by the army.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian announced the "end of the 12-day war" imposed by Israel, in a message to the nation carried by the official IRNA news agency on Tuesday.

"Today, after the heroic resistance of our great nation, whose determination makes history, we are witnessing the establishment of a truce and the ending of this 12-day war imposed by the adventurism and provocation" of Israel, Pezeshkian said.

Iran has not yet reopened its airspace, the Young Journalists' Club media website reported on Tuesday, citing statements by the spokesperson for the country's roads and urban development ministry.

The spokesperson said no decision had been made in this regard.

Flight-tracking website Flightradar 24 had said on X earlier on Tuesday evening that Iranian airspace was open to international arrivals and departures to and from Tehran with prior permission.

Israel's airport authority said Tuesday that all flights in the country will resume after the country's military lifted restrictions linked to the war with Iran as a fragile ceasefire took hold.

"Following the Home Front Command's decision in the last hour regarding the lifting of restrictions, the airports authority announces the return to full activity for the Ben Gurion and Haifa airports," the authority said in a statement.

France on Tuesday condemned what it called deadly "Israeli fire" against civilians in Gaza, after rescuers accused Israeli forces of killing 21 people as they waited for aid.

"France condemns the Israeli fire that last night hit civilians gathered around an aid distribution centre in Gaza, causing several dozen dead and wounded," the foreign ministry said, appearing to refer to an incident early on Tuesday in central Gaza that the Israeli military says was "under review".

In a second such incident, a civil defence spokesman also reported Israeli fire killing a further 25 people seeking rations in south Gaza later in the day.

The aid is being distributed by US- and Israeli-backed privately run aid group Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May to replace UN agencies.

The United Nations and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.

"France reiterates its full support for United Nations agencies and their humanitarian partners, who have proven their integrity and ability to deliver aid in full respect of humanitarian principles," the ministry said.

"Humanitarian aid must not be exploited for political or military purposes," it added.

"France calls on the Israeli government to allow immediate, massive, and unhindered access to humanitarian aid in Gaza."

The head of Israel's military said Tuesday that the country had set back Iran's nuclear programme "by years" during 12 days of strikes and the campaign against the country was now "entering a new phase".

"We have concluded a significant phase, but the campaign against Iran is not over. We are entering a new phase based on the achievements of the current one," Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said in a statement.

"We've set Iran's nuclear project back by years, and the same applies to its missile programme."

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday that Israel and the United States "cannot impose unjust aspirations by force", as a fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel took hold after 12 days of fighting.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran was forced into the military conflict to defend itself, and I hope that we will never be forced to fight again," Pezeshkian said during a phone call with United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement will likely be a persistent problem for the United States in the future, a senior US military official said on Tuesday, even after the US and the Houthis reached an agreement last month that ended a US air campaign against the group.

"The Houthis are likely to be a persistent problem... that we'll be dealing with in the future a few times again," Air Force Lieutenant General Alexus Grynkewich, director for operations of the Joint Staff, told lawmakers. Grynkewich has been nominated to lead the US military's European Command.

China has been in contact with Iran, Israel and relevant parties and looks forward to the realisation of a "real ceasefire", China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Turkish counterpart in a phone call on Tuesday.

All parties should resume dialogue on an equal basis and return to the path of a political settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue, Wang said, according to a statement from his ministry.

The Palestinian issue is still at the heart of Middle East issues, he added.

(Reuters)

Qatar's prime minister persuaded Iran to agree to a US-proposed ceasefire with Israel after Tehran fired missiles at an American base near Doha, a source with knowledge of the talks said on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani spoke to the Iranians after a conversation with US Vice President JD Vance, the source said.

"Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani... persuaded Iran to agree to the proposal in a call with the Iranians," the source told AFP.

Turkey's foreign ministry on Tuesday called on Iran and Israel to fully stop hostilities after US President Donald Trump announced a bilateral ceasefire.

"We welcome the news that Israel and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire," the ministry wrote, urging both parties to "fully comply" and calling for "dialogue and diplomatic channels to remain open".

El Al Israel Airlines is working on an airlift to bring back to Israel tens of thousands of travellers stranded by widespread cancellations following the start of the Israel-Iran war on 13 June, it said on Tuesday.

El Al, Israel's flag carrier, said that in the wake of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran after 12 days of fighting and with the gradual opening of Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, it would boost its schedule, use its full fleet and add thousands of seats in the next 24 hours. 

(Reuters)

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday posted a screenshot from a message from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Truth Social, congratulating him for his "decisive action" in Iran.

"Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do. It makes us all safer," the message read.

(Reuters)

Iranian media reported Tuesday that an Israeli strike the day before had killed a senior commander of Iran's Basij paramilitary force, linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

"The commander of Basij counterintelligence protection forces was martyred in a Zionist regime attack," the Fars news agency said, citing a statement from the IRGC.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday that it will respect a ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump provided that Israel also upholds its terms.

"If the Zionist regime does not violate the ceasefire, Iran will not violate it either," Pezeshkian said during a phone conversation with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, according to the presidency's website.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that China can continue to purchase oil from Iran and hoped that they would also buy "plenty" of it from the United States.

"China can now continue to purchase Oil from Iran. Hopefully, they will be purchasing plenty from the US, also," he said in a post on Truth Social.

(Reuters)

Iran on Tuesday said at least 610 people had been killed and over 4,700 wounded in the Islamic republic since the start of the war with Israel on 13 June.

"Over the past 12 days, hospitals... have been confronted with extremely harrowing scenes," health ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said on X, announcing the increase from the previously reported toll of more than 400 dead and 3,056 wounded.

The International Committee of the Red Cross announced Tuesday that one of its workers had been killed in the Gaza Strip - the fifth since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

"Mahmoud Barakeh, who worked supporting logistics at the Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah, was killed on Sunday," the ICRC said in a statement, adding that he was killed on his way home.

"Mahmoud leaves behind his wife, three sons, and two daughters. His killing is a profound personal loss and a painful moment for our teams.

In offering condolences to his family, friends and colleagues, the ICRC added: "This heartbreaking loss is yet another stark reminder of the immense challenges our colleagues, and the people of Gaza, face each day."

The 60-bed Red Cross Field Hospital opened in May 2024 to provide medical services to civilians affected by the conflict.

The ICRC has previously stressed that international humanitarian law affords special protection to humanitarian relief and medical personnel, medical facilities, and objects used for humanitarian relief operations.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday said "the moment has come" for a Gaza ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

"Today... the moment has come to conclude a ceasefire for Gaza," Merz told parliament, adding that Germany supports Israel but reserves the right to "critically question what Israel wants to achieve in the Gaza Strip".

The Revolutionary Guards said they had arrested a European citizen who had entered Iran as a tourist and gone to southern Hormozgan province to gather intelligence at sensitive and military sites, the semi-official news agency Tasnim reported on Tuesday.

It gave no details on the person's nationality. 

(Reuters)

Gaza's civil defence said Israeli forces killed 25 people waiting for aid in the south of the Palestinian territory in the second such incident on Tuesday, bringing the number of aid seekers killed to 46.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 25 people were killed and dozens wounded when "Israeli forces targeted civilian gatherings near Al-Alam and Al-Shakoush areas with bullets and tank shells as they attempted to reach an aid centre in northwest Rafah, about two kilometres from a US-backed aid distribution point."

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a ceasefire between Iran and Israel was holding, shortly after he lashed out at both countries and cursed as he accused them of violating the truce.

"ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly 'Plane Wave' to Iran. Nobody will be hurt," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. 

Minutes earlier, he had castigated Iran and also close US ally Israel for violating a ceasefire he had originally announced late Monday.

The two countries have been "fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the f**k they're doing, do you understand that?" the president told reporters at the White House.

Iran violated the ceasefire, "but Israel violated it too," Trump told reporters on the White House's South Lawn as he departed for the NATO summit.

"So I'm not happy with them. I'm not happy with Iran either. But I'm really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning."

"I've got to get Israel to calm down," he said. "Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and dropped a load of bombs the likes of which I've never seen before."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he held off a tougher strike against Iran after speaking with US President Donald Trump. 

Netanyahu's office confirmed the military had "destroyed a radar installation near Tehran" in retaliation to several Iranian missile strikes, adding that Netanyahu "refrained from further strikes".

US President Donald Trump reaffirmed on Tuesday that he is not looking for regime change in Iran, as a tentative ceasefire takes hold. 

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Tuesday that they had taught Israel an "unforgettable lesson" with a last-minute missile salvo fired just before a ceasefire deal announced by US President Donald Trump was meant to take effect.

The Guards said in a statement that "in the final moments before the ceasefire was imposed on the enemy", they had struck "military and logistical centres of the Zionist regime across the occupied territories [Israel] with 14 missiles, delivering a historic and unforgettable lesson to the Zionist enemy".

(AFP)

The Israeli Air Force has in the past hour carried out a limited strike in Iran in response to two ballistic missiles that were fired after the start of the ceasefire earlier this morning, according to Israeli news media.

Israeli officials said that warplanes hit an Iranian radar north of Tehran, despite US president Donald Trump warning Israel to respect the ceasefire.

The US president instructed Israel "not to drop those bombs" in a post on Truth Social early on Tuesday, and told reporters outside the White House that he was "very unhappy" with the Israelis for violating the ceasefire and bombing Iran.

A reporter for US outlet Axios earlier said Trump told Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike Iran. The Israeli prime minister reportedly said the military would limit its attack to a single strike.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority demanded on Tuesday that a ceasefire deal announced in the Iran-Israel war be widened to include the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

"The Palestinian Presidency welcomed US President Donald Trump's announcement of a ceasefire agreement," president Mahmud Abbas' office said in a statement carried by official news agency Wafa, adding "we demand the completion of this step by achieving a ceasefire that includes the Gaza Strip".

Gaza's Ministry of Health has said that Israeli attacks on the enclave have killed 79 people and wounded a further 289 in the past 24 hours.

The ministry raised the total death toll to 56,077 killed and 131,848 wounded since the beginning of the war.

Israel will reportedly conduct a single strike on Tehran following a phone conversation between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Axios, citing an Israeli official.

"Trump called Netanyahu on Tuesday and asked him not to carry out an attack in Iran at all. Netanyahu told Trump that he could not cancel the strike and that some response was needed to Iran's violation of the ceasefire," the reporter said, adding: "In the end, it was decided to significantly scale back the strike, cancel the attack on a large number of targets and strike only one target."

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Israel has to calm down after he said both Israel and Iran violated a ceasefire he tried to broker.

"I gotta get Israel to calm down now," Trump said as he left the White House. "Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I've never seen before, the biggest load that we've seen."

"We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the f*** they're doing."

(Reuters)

Iranian state television said Tuesday an overnight Israeli strike killed a nuclear scientist in northern Iran, before US President Donald Trump said a ceasefire was taking effect between the Middle Eastern foes.

Citing sources, the broadcaster reported the killing of Mohammad Reza Seddighi Saber at his parents' residence in Astaneh-ye Ashrafiyeh in northern Iran.

Mohammad Reza Seddighi Saber was under US sanctions. Several days ago, his 17-year-old son was reported killed in a strike on their home in Tehran, the broadcaster said.

Meanwhile, Iran is assessing damage to its nuclear industry and arrangements had been made for its restoration, Iran's nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said on Tuesday according to Mehr news, after a series of Israeli and US strikes targeted Iran's main nuclear facilities.

"The plan is to prevent interruptions in the process of production and services," Eslami said.

(Reuters & AFP)

US President Donald Trump has called on Israel not to strike Tehran after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed to "respond forcefully" against regime sites in Tehran over what it said was a violation of Trump's ceasefire.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said: "ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!"

Israel struck Iran in three stages up until 9 am local time (0530 GMT) on Tuesday, the spokesperson of Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters said, according to state TV.

Iranian state TV earlier said a ceasefire would take place in Iran from 7:30 am local time on Tuesday.

Iran's Supreme National Security Council, its top security body, earlier said its armed forces were prepared to "decisively respond" to renewed attacks. 

(Reuters)

Iran's prison authority has "transferred" prisoners out of Evin prison after it was hit by Israeli strikes, the judiciary said on Tuesday.

The prison authority "transferred the inmates who were serving their sentences in this prison (Evin) to other facilities within Tehran province... to safeguard the rights of the prisoners and to provide space for emergency response teams", the judiciary's Mizan Online website said.

Local media reported the process had been completed, but it was not clear how many prisoners were transferred.

Iranian authorities said they have defused two unexploded missiles that landed near the prison during an Israeli strike on Monday.

"Two unexploded missiles that had been fired yesterday and landed in the vicinity of Evin prison were defused and safely transferred to a secure location," Tasnim news agency reported, citing a police spokesman.

The UN's human rights office said that the attack represents a grave violation of international humanitarian law.

"Evin prison is not a military objective, and targeting it constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law," UN human rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday, without naming Israel.

He said that his office has received reports of fires inside the facility and an unspecified number of injuries.

(Reuters & AFP)

The French foreign ministry called on Iran to engage immediately in negotiations for an accord over its nuclear and ballistic programme.

"France urges Iran to engage without delay in negotiations leading to an agreement that addresses all concerns related to its nuclear and ballistic programs and its destabilizing activities," the ministry said in a statement.

France also said it welcomed US President Donald Trump's announcement of a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.

(Reuters)

Qatar summoned the Iranian ambassador on Tuesday after Iran attacked the major US military base on Qatari soil following American strikes on its nuclear facilities.

The foreign ministry expressed its "strong condemnation" of the attack and repeated that it "retains the right to respond to this egregious violation", a statement said.

Iran's top security body on Tuesday said the Islamic Republic's forces had "compelled" Israel to "unilaterally" cease fire, adding that they remained "on high alert" to respond to "any act of aggression".

Referring to a "divine gift", the Supreme National Security Council said Iran's actions against Israel led to "victory and triumph that compelled the enemy to regret, accept defeat, and unilaterally halt its aggression".

Iran's forces "remain on high alert, with fingers on the trigger, ready to deliver a decisive and regret-inducing response to any act of aggression".

Saudi Arabia lambasted Iran for its "unjustifiable" attack on a US base in Qatar on Monday, offering to deploy "all its capabilities" to support Doha, with whom it has had fraught relations in the past.

Riyadh said it "condemns and denounces in the strongest terms the aggression launched by Iran against the sisterly State of Qatar... This is unacceptable and unjustifiable under any circumstances. The Kingdom affirms its solidarity and full support for... Qatar and offers all its capabilities to support the sisterly State of Qatar in any measures it takes," Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said in a statement.

🇸🇦📞🇶🇦 | HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman speaks with Amir of Qatar, Sheikh @TamimBinHamad. pic.twitter.com/lILdlBuzY1

— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) June 24, 2025

News about a missile attack by Iran on Israel after the ceasefire between the two countries took effect is "denied", Iranian media reported, quoting state TV.

Israeli military said earlier it detected launches from Iran to which Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel would respond "forcefully".

Several states have welcomed a potential ceasefire between Israel and Iran and called for further negotiations for a resolution to the conflict.

This includes the EU's chief Ursula von der Leyen, who on Tuesday said on X: "It's an important step towards restoring stability in a region in tension. This must be our collective priority," adding that Iran must "engage seriously in a credible diplomatic process".

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said that it "welcomes the announcement by (Trump)... that a formula for a ceasefire agreement was reached between the two parties".

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said: "The Chinese side calls on relevant parties to return to the correct path of political resolution at an early date."

Guo also said China "hoped that a ceasefire can be achieved as soon as possible", amid reports that Iran fired missiles on Israel, with Israel vowing to respond.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow was in favour of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran but it was hard to tell if would last.

"It is very difficult to make any final conclusions now and get a clear picture," Lavrov said, in Russia's first reaction to the ceasefire agreement announced by US President Donald Trump.

"It's reported that the Americans convinced Israel to agree to a ceasefire and to establish an indefinite truce, that our Qatari friends played a similar role with regard to Tehran," he said.

"But after it was announced, there were reports of strikes, of an exchange of strikes between Israel and Iran. Therefore, let us not make any hasty conclusions based on fragmentary information."

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday he has ordered a forceful military response to what he called Iran's "violation of the ceasefire", after detecting launches from Iran following the truce's start.

"In light of Iran's blatant violation of the ceasefire declared by the president of the United States - through the launch of missiles toward Israel — and in accordance with the Israeli government's policy to respond forcefully to any breach, I have instructed the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) ... to continue high-intensity operations targeting regime assets and terror infrastructure in Tehran," he said.

(Reuters)

Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike killed three people Tuesday in the country's south, the latest such raid despite a November ceasefire with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.

"The strike launched by an Israeli enemy drone on a vehicle" in the Bint Jbeil district "resulted in the death of three people", the ministry said in a statement carried by the official National News Agency (NNA).

The United Nations condemned on Tuesday the "weaponisation of food" in Gaza as a war crime and urged Israel's military to "stop shooting at people trying to get food".

"Israel's militarised humanitarian assistance mechanism is in contradiction with international standards on aid distribution," the UN human rights office said in written notes provided before a briefing.

"The weaponisation of food for civilians, in addition to restricting or preventing their access to life-sustaining services, constitutes a war crime."

Israel's opposition leader on Tuesday called for an end to the more than 20-month war with Hamas in Gaza, after Israel announced it had agreed to a ceasefire with Iran.

"And now Gaza. It's time to finish it there too. Bring back the hostages, end the war," Yair Lapid wrote on X.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed 21 people waiting for aid near a distribution site in the centre of the Palestinian territory on Tuesday, the latest deadly incident targeting aid seekers.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Basal told AFP that 21 people were killed and around 150 wounded "as a result of the Israeli occupation forces' targeting of gatherings of citizens waiting for aid... in the central Gaza Strip with bullets and tank shells" in the early hours of Tuesday. AFP has contact the Israeli military for comment.