Global stocks were mixed Wednesday as markets weighed lingering worries about the Iran-Israel conflict while Nvidia surged to a fresh all-time high on bullishness over artificial intelligence.Analysts cited not only concerns that the ceasefire between Iran and Israel could break down, but leaked US intelligence that said strikes had set back Tehran’s nuclear program by …
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President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the fledgling ceasefire between Israel and Iran was going “very well” and teased new nuclear talks with Tehran, as leaked US intelligence cast doubt on the damage done to the Islamic republic’s atomic programme.Here are the latest developments on the second day of the ceasefire:- Iran-US talks -Trump said that the United States would hold fresh nuclear negotiations with Iran, even after boasting that US strikes had crippled its atomic programme.He told reporters that Israel and Iran were “both tired, exhausted” after 12 days of war, going on to say that talks with Tehran were planned for “next week”.”We may sign an agreement. I don’t know,” he added. “I mean, they had a war, they fought, now they’re going back to their world. I don’t care if I have an agreement or not.”Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had said on Tuesday his country was willing to return to negotiations, but would continue to “assert its legitimate rights” to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.- ‘Decades’ of damage -Trump insisted that US strikes had resulted in the “total obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, setting the country’s programme back by “decades”.”They’re not going to be building bombs for a long time,” said Trump, who added that the ceasefire since Tuesday was going “very well”.But US media had earlier cited people familiar with a preliminary US intelligence report as saying that weekend strikes did not fully eliminate Iran’s centrifuges or stockpile of enriched uranium.The US bombardments sealed off entrances to some facilities without destroying underground buildings, setting Iran’s nuclear programme back by several months, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency report.- ‘Significant hit’ -The Israeli military said it had delivered a blow to Iran’s nuclear programme, but added that it was “still early to assess the results of the operation”.”I believe we have delivered a significant hit to the nuclear programme, and I can also say that we have delayed it by several years,” military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in a televised press conference.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hailed a “historic victory” in the 12-day conflict and vowed to thwart “any attempt” by Iran to rebuild its nuclear programme.- ‘Disgraceful’ -Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei branded NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s gushing note to Trump on the US strikes as “disgraceful, despicable and irresponsible”.While Iranian officials have yet to disclose the exact scale of the damage resulting from US and Israeli strikes on nuclear facilities, Baqaei told Al Jazeera English that they had been “badly damaged”.- Ground troops in Iran -Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir said Wednesday that commandos had operated secretly inside Iran, “deep within enemy territory and created operational freedom of action for us” during the war.He was the first Israeli official to say publicly that Israeli soldiers had operated on the ground in the Islamic republic.The head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, meanwhile, thanked the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for its help in “joint” operations during the war.He said the CIA “supported Mossad in making the right decisions”, spy chief David Barnea said.The extent of the purported help provided by the CIA is unknown.- Iran eases internet curbs -Iranian authorities announced the gradual easing of internet restrictions imposed during the war.”The communication network is gradually returning to its previous state,” said the Revolutionary Guards’ cybersecurity command in a statement carried by state media.The Islamic republic also reopened the airspace over its eastern half, transport ministry spokesman Majid Akhavan said, according to the official IRNA news agency.Flights in other parts of Iran, including the capital Tehran, “are not permitted until further notice”, Akhavan noted.- State funerals -Iran will hold state funerals on Saturday for senior military commanders and top scientists killed during the war.Hossein Salami, the Revolutionary Guards chief killed by Israel on the war’s first day on June 13, will be laid to rest in central Iran on Thursday.According to the Iranian health ministry, Israeli strikes during the war killed at least 627 civilians.Iran’s attacks on Israel killed 28 people, according to Israeli figures.- Iran MPs on IAEA -Iranian lawmakers voted Wednesday in favour of suspending cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog.”The International Atomic Energy Agency, which refused to even marginally condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, put its international credibility up for auction,” Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, according to state TV.The decision still requires the approval of the Guardian Council, a body empowered to vet legislation.burs-ser/smw/kir
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that progress was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict.”I think great progress is being made on Gaza,” Trump told reporters, adding that his special envoy Steve Witkoff had told him: “Gaza is very close.”He linked his optimism about imminent “very good news” to a ceasefire agreed on Tuesday between Israel and Hamas’s backer Iran to end their 12-day war.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing calls from opposition politicians, relatives of hostages being held in Gaza and even members of his ruling coalition to bring an end to the fighting, triggered by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.Key mediator Qatar announced Tuesday that it would launch a new push for a ceasefire, with Hamas on Wednesday saying talks had stepped up.”Our communications with the brother mediators in Egypt and Qatar have not stopped and have intensified in recent hours,” Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.He cautioned, however, that the group had “not yet received any new proposals” to end the war.The Israeli government declined to comment on any new ceasefire talks beyond saying that efforts to return Israeli hostages in Gaza were ongoing “on the battlefield and via negotiations”.- ‘No clear purpose’ -Israel sent forces into Gaza to root out Iran-linked Hamas and rescue hostages after the group’s October 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 56,156 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.In one of the war’s deadliest incidents for the Israeli army, it said seven of its soldiers were killed on Tuesday in southern Gaza, taking its overall losses in the territory to 441.The latest losses led to rare criticism of the war effort by the leader of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, a partner in Netanyahu’s coalition government.”I still don’t understand why we are fighting there… Soldiers are getting killed all the time,” lawmaker Moshe Gafni told a hearing in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday.The slain soldiers were from the Israeli combat engineering corps and were conducting a reconnaissance mission in the Khan Yunis area when their vehicle was targeted with an explosive device, according to a military statement.At the funeral of 20-year-old Staff Sergeant Ronel Ben-Moshe in Rehovot south of Tel Aviv on Wednesday, inconsolable loved ones sobbed alongside babyfaced soldiers in uniform.One former comrade who served with Ben-Moshe in Gaza told AFP of the strain the war was putting on soldiers, saying it was time for it to end.”Me, I was unable to complete my military service. I was so bad off mentally that I was demobilised,” said the former soldier, who gave his name only as Ariel.”I have seen so many kids like me die. It’s time for it to stop.”The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing relatives of captives held in Gaza, endorsed the call to end the war.”The war in Gaza has run its course, it is being conducted with no clear purpose and no concrete plan,” the group said in a statement.Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the Hamas attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.Human rights groups say Gaza and its population of more than two million face famine-like conditions due to Israeli restrictions, with near-daily deaths of people queuing for food aid.- Gunfire near aid site – Gaza’s civil defence agency said Wednesday that Israeli fire killed another 35 people, including six who were waiting for aid.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that a crowd of aid-seekers was hit by Israeli “bullets and tank shells” in an area of central Gaza where Palestinians have gathered each night in the hope of collecting rations.Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was “not aware of any incident this morning with casualties in the central Gaza Strip”.The United Nations on Tuesday condemned the “weaponisation of food” in Gaza, and slammed a US- and Israeli-backed body that has largely replaced established humanitarian organisations there.The privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes, deaths and neutrality concerns.The GHF has denied that deadly incidents have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.The Gaza health ministry says that since late May, nearly 550 people have been killed near aid centres while seeking scarce supplies. burs-cl/kir/smw
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States would hold nuclear talks with Iran next week, teasing the possibility of a deal even after boasting that recent US strikes had crippled the Islamic republic’s atomic programme.Trump credited the unprecedented US attacks with the “total obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, and said they had set the country’s programme back “decades”.But leaked US intelligence cast doubt on that assessment, saying the strikes had likely delayed Tehran by just a few months.Before the agreement of a ceasefire on Tuesday, Israel had pounded Iranian nuclear and military sites over the course of 12 days of war, while Iran launched waves of missiles at its regional arch foe in their deadliest-ever confrontation.The United States joined the fray in support of its ally, hitting two nuclear facilities with massive bunker-buster bombs over the weekend, while a guided missile from a submarine struck a third.”They’re not going to be building bombs for a long time,” said Trump, adding the strikes had set back the programme by “decades” and that the ceasefire that he declared was going “very well”.He later told reporters that Israel and Iran were “both tired, exhausted”, going on to say that talks were planned with Iran “next week”.”We may sign an agreement. I don’t know,” he added.Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had said on Tuesday his country was willing to return to negotiations over its nuclear programme, but that it would continue to “assert its legitimate rights” to the peaceful use of atomic energy.- ‘Still early’ -Israel’s military said Wednesday it was “still early” to assess the damage the war caused to Iran’s nuclear programme.”I believe we have delivered a significant hit to the nuclear programme, and I can also say that we have delayed it by several years,” said Israeli military spokesman Effie Defrin.Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei acknowledged to Al Jazeera that its “nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure”.But US media on Tuesday cited people familiar with a Defense Intelligence Agency report as saying the American strikes did not fully eliminate Iran’s centrifuges or enriched uranium stockpiles.The strikes sealed off entrances to some facilities without destroying underground buildings, according to the report.Israel had said its bombing campaign, which began on June 13, was aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.Its commandos had also operated inside Iran during the conflict, Israel’s army chief publicly acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday.”The forces operated in secret deep within enemy territory and created operational freedom of action for us,” chief of staff Eyal Zamir said in a televised address.- ‘The same intensity’ -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to the nation after the ceasefire, announced that “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 said.Iranian lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favour of suspending cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog, state television reported.”The International Atomic Energy Agency, which refused to even marginally condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, put its international credibility up for auction,” parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, according to the broadcaster.The decision to suspend cooperation with the IAEA still requires the approval of the Guardian Council, a body empowered to vet legislation.In an interview with the Al Araby Al Jadeed news outlet, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran remained committed to the Non-Proliferation Treaty but that it had failed to “protect us or our nuclear programme”, adding without elaborating that Iran’s approach towards the regime “will undergo changes”.- ‘Finally, we can sleep’ -While Iran and Israel have been locked in a shadow war for decades, their 12-day conflict was by far the most destructive confrontation between them.Israeli strikes hit nuclear and military targets — killing scientists and senior military figures — as well as residential areas, prompting waves of Iranian missile fire on Israel.Tehran remained relatively quiet on Wednesday, with many shops still shuttered and only some restaurants open, though there was more life on the streets than during the height of the war.”Thank God, the situation has improved, the ceasefire has been reached, and people have returned to work and their lives,” said one resident, a 39-year-old salesman who gave his name as Saeed.Others, however, were uncertain whether the peace would hold.”I really don’t know… about the ceasefire but honestly, I don’t think things will return to normal,” said 28-year-old Amir.Some Israelis, meanwhile, welcomed the truce.”Finally, we can sleep peacefully. We feel better, less worried, for the kids, for the family. And I hope it stays that way,” said Yossi Bin, a 45-year-old engineer in Tel Aviv.Israeli strikes on Iran killed at least 627 civilians, according to the health ministry.Iran’s attacks on Israel killed 28 people, according to Israeli figures.burs-smw/kir
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Wednesday hailed what it called its ally Iran’s victory over Israel after 12 days of war, declaring it the start of a “new historical phase”.In a statement, Hezbollah offered its “most sincere congratulations” to the Islamic republic, praising its “glorious divine victory”.The victory, it said, was “manifested in the precise and painful strikes it launched” against Israel, as well as “the lightning response to the American aggression against its nuclear facilities”.On Sunday, the United States struck Iranian nuclear facilities following days of Israeli strikes, but a classified intelligence report concluded the attacks had only set back Tehran’s nuclear programme by a few months.”This is nothing but the beginning of a new historical phase in confronting American hegemony and Zionist arrogance in the region,” Hezbollah said.Hezbollah, which fought a devastating war against Israel last year, expressed its “firm and unwavering support for the Islamic republic, its leadership and people,” emphasising that “any surrender, subservience or concession will only increase our enemies’ arrogance and dominance over our region”.Israel launched a major bombardment of Iranian nuclear and military facilities on June 13, as well as targeted attacks on top scientists and commanders.The Israeli strikes killed at least 627 civilians and wounded more than 4,800, according to the Iranian health ministry.Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel have killed 28 people, according to Israeli figures.Later Wednesday, hundreds of people rallied outside the Iranian embassy in Beirut, responding to a call from Hezbollah to celebrate “the culmination of the struggle and sacrifices” of the Iranian people “who triumphed over the Israeli-American aggression”.Ahmed Mohebbi, 42, who was among the crowd, said: “We are very happy about this victory that Iran achieved, despite the hits it took and attacks by America and Israel to prevent it from continuing its nuclear programme.”Our steadfastness is a victory,” he told AFP.The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc Mohammed Raad said in a speech that Iran was “a regional deterrent force, like it or not.””It proved this with its steadfastness” and by standing up against “a tyrannical enemy who sought to impose its hegemony on the whole region,” he said.Iran has backed Hezbollah since the group’s founding in the 1980s, providing it with financial and military support.The group was severely weakened in its latest confrontation with Israel, which killed most of its top leadership and destroyed much of its arsenal.
Relieved Israelis returned to work and school on Wednesday after the military lifted restrictions following a ceasefire with Iran, while some voiced lingering apprehension about the future.People sunbathed and played football on Tel Aviv’s beaches, streets and markets came back to life, and schools reopened on Wednesday following the deal to end the 12-day war.”Finally, we can start to live again,” said Yosi, 40, a yoga teacher and mother of two, sitting at a cafe in Tel Aviv.The western coastal city was among the sites struck repeatedly during Iran and Israel’s deadly exchanges of missiles.”I’m exhausted, but I was so relieved when I saw my two kids going to school this morning, meeting their friends, after 12 days at home,” she added.Traders unpacked their spices, clothes and souvenirs at Carmel market in the centre of the economic and tech capital, which is also renowned for its nightlife.”We hope now the clients will be back. We have suffered too much,” a jewellery trader, Ori, told AFP.Crowds of passengers moved through the Ben Gurion airport outside the city as commercial flights resumed.Families holding miniature Israeli flags smiled as they stepped off planes on their return. Some kneeled and kissed the tarmac.- Fears for future -For some, the relief was tinged with fear about further unrest.”I’m not religious but I pray that I won’t hear any more sirens, that I won’t have to run and hide in a shelter,” said Yafit Sofi, 33, between sips of beer in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening.”We want to party, we want to live, to regain our carefree attitude… But how long will this last? What will the next war be?” the young woman said.”So many people want to kill us, so many countries want to destroy Israel. And each time, it’s worse.”The ceasefire with Iran raised hopes for some that Israel would also halt the fighting in the nearby Palestinian territory Gaza where it has been battling to crush the Islamist militant group Hamas for more than 20 months.The area is suffering from famine-like conditions after Israel blocked all supplies from early March to the end of May and continues to impose restrictions, according to rights groups.The Israeli government declined to comment on any new ceasefire talks beyond saying that efforts to return Israeli hostages in Gaza were ongoing “on the battlefield and via negotiations”.In Tel Aviv, Yossi Bin, 45, an engineer, said now families in the city could “sleep peacefully”.”I hope it stays that way,” he added.”I truly hope the ceasefire will hold, and that (the government) take advantage… to take some action to bring calm to other fronts as well.”- Gaza suffering -Israel attacked Iran in a bid to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, an ambition Tehran has consistently denied having.The Israeli action killed at least 610 civilians and wounded more than 4,700, according to the Iranian health ministry.Iranian missile strikes on Israel killed 28 people, according to official figures and rescuers.”At first we felt like it was a game, it all seemed unreal. We were at the beach and suddenly we were running into shelters to hide,” said Dorothea Schupelius, 29, while strolling in Tel Aviv.”And then no, it wasn’t a game: real people died,” she said. “Everyone suffered.”Fashion designer Noa Karlovsky had a pile of wedding dresses sewn for her clients in her loft in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv.”Many of our men are in Gaza, and with the war in Iran, even more weddings have been cancelled,” she said sadly.”We can’t plan anything, we don’t really control our lives anymore. Our leaders are at war, but we’re just pawns. I’d like to start a family, but I wonder if it’s a good idea,” added the 30-year-old.
Iran on Wednesday hanged three men convicted of spying for Israel after what activists decried as an unfair trial, bringing to six the number of people executed on such charges since the start of the war between the Islamic republic and Israel.The hangings have also amplified fears for the life of Swedish-Iranian dual national Ahmadreza Djalali who has been on death row for seven-and-a-half years after being convicted of spying for Israel which his family vehemently denies.The executions also bring to nine the number of people executed by Iran on espionage charges since the start of 2025, with activists accusing the Islamic republic of using capital punishment as a means to instil fear in society.Idris Ali, Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul and Azad Shojai were executed earlier Wednesday in the northwestern city of Urmia, the judiciary said, the day after a truce between the Islamic republic and Israel came into effect.They had “attempted to import equipment into the country to carry out assassinations,” it added.Iran had executed three other men accused of spying for Israel since the start of the conflict on June 13, in separate hangings on June 16, June 22 and June 23.”The Islamic Republic sentenced Idris Ali, Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul, and Azad Shojai to death without a fair trial and based on confessions obtained under torture, accusing them of espionage,” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), told AFP.He said Ali and Shojai were two border porters — known locally as kolbar — who carry goods over the border. “They were arrested on charges of smuggling alcoholic beverages but were forced to confess to espionage for Israel,” he said. Ali and Shojai were members of Iran’s Kurdish minority while Rasoul, while also Kurdish, was an Iraqi national.- ‘Imminent risk’ -He warned that in the coming weeks the lives of “hundreds” more prisoners sentenced to death were at risk. “After the ceasefire with Israel, the Islamic republic needs more repression to cover up military failures, prevent protests, and ensure its continued survival.”Djalali was arrested in 2016 and sentenced to death in October 2017 on charges of spying following what Amnesty International has termed “a grossly unfair trial” based on “‘forced confessions’ made under torture and other ill-treatment.”Long held in Tehran’s Evin prison, which was hit by an Israeli strike on Monday before the truce, he has now been transferred to an unknown location, raising fears that his execution could be imminent, his family and government said.”He called me and said, ‘They’re going to transfer me.’ I asked where, and he said, ‘I don’t know,'” his wife Vida Mehrannia told AFP. “Is it because they want to carry out the sentence? Or for some other reason? I don’t know,” she said, adding that she was “very worried” following the latest executions.The Swedish foreign ministry said it had received information that he has been moved to an “unknown location” and warned there would be “serious consequences” for Sweden’s relationship with Iran were he to be executed.Amnesty International said Tuesday it was “gravely concerned” that he “is at imminent risk of execution”.- ‘Grossly unfair trials’ -Rights groups say defendants in espionage cases are often convicted under vaguely-worded charges which are capital crimes under Iran’s sharia law including “enmity against god” and “corruption on earth”.Analysts say that Israel’s intelligence service Mossad has deeply penetrated Iran, as shown by its ability to locate and kill key members of the Iranian security forces in the conflict. But rights groups say that those executed are used as scapegoats to make up for Iran’s failure to catch the actual spies.Iran’s judiciary chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei had ordered swift trials against people suspected of collaborating with Israel with rights groups saying dozens of people have been arrested since the conflict started. “A rush to execute people after torture-tainted ‘confessions’ and grossly unfair trials would be a horrifying abuse of power and a blatant assault on the right to life,” said Hussein Baoumi, deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.According to IHR, Iran has executed 594 people on all charges this year alone. Iran executes more people every year than any nation other than China.
President Donald Trump insisted Wednesday that US strikes led to the “total obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear capabilities and set the country’s atomic programme back “decades”, while Israel said it was still early to fully assess the damage.Over a 12-day conflict, Israel pounded Iranian nuclear and military sites while Iran launched waves of missiles at its foe during their deadliest-ever confrontation.The United States joined the fray in support of its ally, hitting two nuclear facilities with massive bunker-buster bombs over the weekend, while a guided missile from a submarine struck a third.But leaked US intelligence cast doubt on the damage caused by American strikes, saying they had set back Tehran’s nuclear programme by just a few months.”They’re not going to be building bombs for a long time,” said Trump, adding that the strikes had set back the programme by “decades” and that the Iran-Israel ceasefire that he declared was going “very well”.Earlier, Israel’s military said it was “still early” to assess the damage caused to Iran’s nuclear programme.”I believe we have delivered a significant hit to the nuclear programme, and I can also say that we have delayed it by several years,” said Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin.The head of Israel’s military, Eyal Zamir, on Tuesday said Israel and the United States had set back Iran’s nuclear programme “by years”.But US media on Tuesday cited people familiar with the Defense Intelligence Agency intelligence report as saying the American strikes did not fully eliminate Iran’s centrifuges or enriched uranium stockpiles.The strikes sealed off entrances to some facilities without destroying underground buildings, according to the report.Israel had said its bombing campaign, which began on June 13, was aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to the nation after the ceasefire, announced that “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 said.- ‘Legitimate rights’ -Iranian lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favour of suspending cooperation with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, according to state TV.”The International Atomic Energy Agency, which refused to even marginally condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, put its international credibility up for auction,” parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, according to the broadcaster.The decision to suspend cooperation with the IAEA still requires the approval of the Guardian Council, a body empowered to vet legislation.Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday his country was willing to return to negotiations over its nuclear programme, but that it would continue to “assert its legitimate rights” to the peaceful use of atomic energy.In an interview with the Al Araby Al Jadeed news outlet, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities would have “serious and profound repercussions” on the country’s future.He said Iran remained committed to the Non-Proliferation Treaty but that it had failed “protect us or our nuclear programme”, adding that Iran’s approach towards the non-proliferation regime “will undergo changes”, without elaborating.- Shadow war – While Iran and Israel have been locked in a shadow war for decades, their 12-day conflict was by far the most destructive confrontation between them.Israeli strikes hit nuclear and military targets — killing scientists and senior military figures — as well as residential areas, prompting waves of Iranian missile fire on Israel.The war culminated in US strikes on underground Iranian nuclear sites using bunker-busting bombs — which Israel lacks — followed by an Iranian reprisal targeting a US military facility in Qatar, the largest in the Middle East.Trump shrugged off that response as “weak”, thanking Tehran for giving advance notice and announcing the contours of the ceasefire just hours later.Some Israelis welcomed the truce.”Finally, we can sleep peacefully. We feel better, less worried, for the kids, for the family. And I hope it stays that way. That’s the most important,” Yossi Bin, a 45-year-old engineer in Tel Aviv, told AFP.In Iran, people remained uncertain whether the peace would hold.Amir, 28, fled from Tehran to the Caspian Sea coast and told AFP by phone, “I really don’t know… about the ceasefire but honestly, I don’t think things will return to normal.”Israeli strikes on Iran killed at least 610 civilians and wounded more than 4,700, according to the health ministry.Iran’s attacks on Israel killed 28 people, according to official figures and rescuers.burs-ser/dv
