Israel and Iran exchanged direct military strikes on Monday in a dangerous escalation that has shaken a fragile ceasefire and threatened to pull the broader Middle East into renewed all-out conflict. Israel launched air strikes on military targets in central and western Iran — including radar systems, ballistic missile launch sites, and a petrochemical complex in Mahshahr in the country's southwest — hours after Iran fired roughly ten ballistic missiles at northern Israel in response to Israeli strikes on Beirut's southern Dahiyeh district, a stronghold of the Hezbollah movement. The Israeli military said it intercepted the incoming Iranian missiles, while Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced it had launched what it called "Operation Victory," targeting the Ramat David and Tel Nof air bases inside Israel.

The sequence of strikes unfolded despite an urgent phone call from US President Donald Trump to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Trump urged restraint. A senior US official said Trump believed he had persuaded Netanyahu to hold off, but Israel proceeded with its strikes within hours. "I call all the shots. He doesn't call the shots," Trump told the Financial Times, though his intervention ultimately failed to prevent the Israeli action. The White House did not confirm whether the Israeli strikes were coordinated with Washington; a US military official separately confirmed that American forces did not participate. The strikes targeted at least 20 sites in Iran, according to Israeli media, and the Israeli navy also reportedly took part in the operation.

The current flare-up is rooted in a conflict that has been burning for roughly 100 days. Fighting began in early March 2025 when Hezbollah — the Lebanese armed group closely aligned with Iran — launched rockets at Israel following the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, triggering an Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon. A broader US-Israeli military campaign against Iran followed, striking nuclear facilities including the Natanz enrichment complex in Isfahan province, as well as naval bases, air installations, and oil infrastructure. Iran has responded by partially blockading the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly one fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas passes. A US-brokered ceasefire paused direct US-Israeli strikes on Iran in early April, but the truce has remained fragile, with Israel continuing operations in Lebanon and both sides trading strikes in the weeks since.

Military analysts have noted that Iran's latest missile salvo appeared calibrated rather than all-out: the missiles were not the most advanced or fragmentation-type weapons in Iran's arsenal, and targeting was limited to northern Israel — the front most directly linked to the Lebanon theatre — rather than deeper strategic sites. Iran's parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused Washington of having given a "green light" for the Beirut strikes, declaring that US bases and Israeli assets were now "legitimate targets." Iran's foreign ministry framed its military action as lawful self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter. The Israeli minister Zeev Elkin said in response that "every target in Iran is a legitimate target for us," while the Israeli military warned it would respond to every missile launched by Iran or its allies.

The exchange has complicated ongoing US-Iran negotiations aimed at a broader deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has oscillated between warning that he will "blow the hell out of" Iran if talks fail and insisting a deal is imminent. Tehran has demanded the lifting of US and international sanctions, recognition of its influence over the strait, and the release of frozen assets; Washington insists any agreement must prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The Lebanon dimension has been an additional sticking point — Iran insists a ceasefire there must be part of any broader settlement, while Israel has treated the two fronts as separate. Brent crude oil jumped more than three percent to above $96 a barrel on Monday, reflecting market anxiety about supplies from the Gulf region. Israeli security assessments, according to Israeli army radio, suggest the current escalation could extend for several more days.