The World Last Week
Iran and Israel are back at war. Kashmir's civil society is under arrest. Congress is writing Israel into US law permanently.
Iran and Israel exchange missiles for the first time since April. Kashmir's government bans a shopkeepers' committee under anti-terror law. The US Congress quietly votes to make its military and intelligence integration with Israel impossible to undo.
Iran and Israel Exchange Strikes, Ceasefire Collapses
The fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel fell apart on Sunday and Monday in the most serious escalation since Washington and Tehran agreed to halt fighting in early April. By Monday morning, Israel had launched airstrikes on central and western Iran, Iran had fired three waves of missiles at Israel, Yemen’s Houthi rebels had launched a separate missile at Israeli territory, and air raid sirens were sounding near a US military base in Saudi Arabia. President Trump posted on social media demanding both sides stop shooting, and both sides eventually signaled a pause, but the two-month-old ceasefire had been effectively broken for the second time.
The sequence of events began on Sunday, June 7. Hezbollah fired missiles at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. Israel responded by striking Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh, hitting a building in the Hezbollah-dominated area of the city despite a US request earlier in the week to stand down. Tehran had warned that any Israeli escalation would trigger retaliation. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps then launched missiles at Israel in three separate waves. Multiple explosions were heard across central and northern Israel, and Israeli air defenses worked to intercept the incoming fire. Iran’s state broadcaster confirmed the launches, and Iran closed western airspace in anticipation of an Israeli response.
Iran’s IRGC said in a statement to the New York Times that the ceasefire “was conditional on a ceasefire on all fronts.” Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, had made the same point publicly on X earlier in the week, citing the US naval blockade and ongoing Israeli operations in Lebanon as violations of the April 8 agreement. The IRGC warned that if Israeli aggression continued, responses “will be broader in scope and will encompass all American and Zionist targets throughout the region.”
Trump was briefed on the missile attacks by the White House, and told Fox News on Sunday that Iran’s strikes were “certainly not going to help negotiations.” He contacted Netanyahu directly to urge restraint and asked Israel not to retaliate. Israel retaliated anyway.
In the early hours of Monday June 8, dozens of Israeli warplanes struck military targets in central and western Iran. The operation targeted Iranian air defense systems that were being rebuilt after the original Operation Epic Fury strikes, as well as a large petrochemical complex in Mahshahr, in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province. Workers at the plant were evacuated. Iran’s airports, including Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, were shut down. Explosions were reported in Tehran, Isfahan, and Tabriz. Iran’s military described the Israeli strikes as crossing “all red lines.”
Iran then fired additional missiles into Israel. Sirens activated in Tel Aviv and southern Israeli cities, including near Dimona, which houses Israel’s main nuclear research facility, and the city of Arad. Israeli emergency services said there were no immediate reports of injuries. Iranian missiles were intercepted or landed in open areas. Late on Monday morning, Iran announced it was halting further attacks, saying Israel had “learned a lesson,” while maintaining its threat of broader retaliation if strikes continued.
The Houthi movement in Yemen launched a separate missile at Israel on Monday, the first such attack from Yemen since the April 8 ceasefire. Air warning sirens also sounded in an area of Saudi Arabia near a US air base, though Saudi authorities said the danger passed.
A US defense official confirmed American forces took no part in the Israeli strikes on Iran and described Israel’s operation as “relatively limited.” Trump then posted again: “Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE! Final negotiations on ‘Peace’ are proceeding.”
The resumed fighting threatens ongoing US-Iran diplomatic talks aimed at extending the ceasefire and eventually reaching a longer-term nuclear agreement. Iran has consistently maintained that any lasting deal must include a halt to Israeli operations in Lebanon, a condition the United States has not endorsed and Israel has rejected. This week’s exchange of fire is the direct product of that unresolved contradiction.
In Lebanon, where the fighting has continued without pause since March despite a separate April 16 Israel-Lebanon agreement, Lebanese authorities released updated figures on Sunday. From April 17 through June 7, Israel conducted 3,491 air raids on Lebanese territory, 407 bombing operations, and six bulldozing operations that have left villages in the south entirely flattened. The confirmed death toll stands at 3,526, with 10,733 wounded. Three Israeli soldiers were killed in Lebanon in the days since the latest ceasefire was signed.
Separately, the United States circulated a draft resolution to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors on Sunday demanding Iran disclose what happened to its bombed nuclear sites and the highly enriched uranium stored at Isfahan, Fordow, and Natanz. All three sites have been buried under rubble since the US-Israeli strikes and IAEA inspectors have been unable to access them since the bombing began. The US draft text demands Iran provide precise information on its nuclear material and grant inspectors full access, describing both steps as “essential and urgent.” Russia’s ambassador to the IAEA noted the obvious contradiction: it was the United States that bombed the sites and denied inspector access in the first place.
