BEERSHEBA, Israel (AP) — A tentative truce faltered Tuesday when Israel vowed to retaliate after saying Iran launched missiles into its airspace more than two hours after the ceasefire was supposed to take effect.

Iran’s military denied firing on Israel, state media reported — but explosions boomed and sirens sounded across northern Israel midmorning. Earlier, both Israel and Iran had accepted the ceasefire plan to end their 12-day war.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called the missiles a violation of the ceasefire and instructed Israel’s military to resume “the intense operations to attack Tehran and to destroy targets of the regime and terror infrastructure.”

The shaky agreement was announced early Tuesday morning by U.S. President Donald Trump after Tehran launched a limited retaliatory missile attack on a U.S. military base in Qatar on Monday.

Between Trump’s post and the start of the ceasefire, Israel launched a blitz of airstrikes targeting sites across Iran before dawn and Iran replied with an onslaught of missiles that killed at least four people in Israel.

An Israeli military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with military regulations said Iran launched two missiles at Israel hours into the tenuous ceasefire. Both missiles were intercepted, the official said.

“Tehran will tremble,” Israeli Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich wrote on X after the missiles were launched.

Netanyahu accepts ceasefire as Iranian state TV says fighting has stopped

The midmorning barrage of missiles came after regional leaders, including in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, welcomed Trump’s announcement of the ceasefire.

“THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT. PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!” he wrote on his social media platform Tuesday morning.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had agreed to a bilateral ceasefire with Iran in coordination with Trump, pledging to respond to any subsequent violation. He said he had told Israel’s security cabinet that the country had achieved all of its war goals, including removing the threat of Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Israel also damaged Iran’s military leadership and several government sites and achieved control over Tehran’s skies, Netanyahu said.

Iranian officials did not comment either after Trump announced the ceasefire or Israel claimed it had intercepted additional missiles hours after it supposedly went into effect. Hours earlier, Iran’s top diplomat had said the country was prepared to halt airstrikes.

“As of now, there is NO ‘agreement’ on any ceasefire or cessation of military operations,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in a post on X. “However, provided that the Israeli regime stops its illegal aggression against the Iranian people no later than 4 am Tehran time, we have no intention to continue our response afterwards.”

Araghchi added: “The final decision on the cessation of our military operations will be made later.”

Iranian missiles kill 4 in Israel as hostilities expand

The shaky ceasefire followed a day of hostilities spreading further across the region.

Iran launched a limited missile attack Monday on a U.S. military base in Qatar, retaliating for earlier American bombing of its nuclear sites. The U.S. was warned by Iran in advance, and there were no casualties. Israel’s military said Iran launched 20 missiles toward Israel before the ceasefire began on Tuesday morning. Police said they damaged at least three densely packed residential buildings in the city of Beersheba.

First responders said they retrieved four bodies from one building and were searching for more. Earlier, the Fire and Rescue service said five bodies were found before revising the number downward.

At least 20 people were injured.

Outside, the shells of burned out cars littered the streets. Broken glass and rubble covered the area. Hundreds of emergency workers gathered to search for anyone else trapped in the buildings.

Police said some people were injured even while inside their apartments’ reinforced safe rooms, which are meant to withstand rockets and shrapnel but not direct hits from ballistic missiles.

Bases hit in Iraq

Drones attacked military bases in Iraq overnight, including some housing U.S. troops, the Iraqi army and a US military official said Tuesday.

No casualties were reported and no group claimed responsibility for the attacks in Iraq. Some Iran-backed Iraqi militias had previously threatened to target U.S. bases if the U.S. attacked Iran.

Iraqi army spokesperson Sabah Al-Naaman in a statement called the attacks a “treacherous and cowardly act of aggression” and said they had damaged radar systems at Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, and at Imam Ali Base in Dhi Qar province. Iraqi forces shot down drones at other locations, he said.

A senior U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said U.S. forces had shot down drones attacking Ain al-Assad in the desert in western Iraq and at a base next to the Baghdad airport, while another one crashed.

Trump says ceasefire is in effect

Trump promised last night’s ceasefire would bring an “official end” to what he at the time coined the “12 Day War” ahead of Israel’s promise to resume operations on Tuesday.

Trump had communicated directly with Netanyahu to secure the ceasefire, according to a senior White House official who insisted on anonymity to discuss the Monday talks. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff communicated with the Iranians through direct and indirect channels.

The White House has maintained that the Saturday bombing helped get the Israelis to agree to the ceasefire and that the Qatari government helped to broker the deal.

It’s unclear what role Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s leader, played in the talks. He said earlier on social media that he would not surrender.

Attacks force temporary closure of Israel’s skies

Israel’s Airports Authority said Iran’s barrage forced them to close the country’s airspace to emergency flights for several hours.

Some flights were forced to circle over the Mediterranean Sea, according to Israeli media.

Israel’s airports have been closed since the war with Iran began, but a handful of emergency flights started arriving and departing over the past few days.

By early Tuesday, Qatar Airways resumed its flights after Qatar shut down its airspace over the Iranian attack on Al Udeid Air Base. Flight-tracking data showed commercial aircraft again flying in Qatari airspace, signaling Doha believed the threat on the energy-rich nation had passed.

Conflict has killed hundreds

In Israel, at least 28 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the war. Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 974 people and wounded 3,458 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists.

The group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from Iranian unrest such as the protests surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022, said of those killed, it identified 387 civilians and 268 security force personnel.

The U.S. has evacuated some 250 American citizens and their immediate family members from Israel by government, military and charter flights that began over the weekend, a State Department official said.

There are roughly 700,000 American citizens, most of them dual U.S.-Israeli citizens, believed to be in Israel.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel hit Iranian government targets in Tehran on Monday in a series of strikes that followed a salvo of missiles and drones fired by Iran at Israel in the wake of the Trump administration’s massive strikes on Iranian nuclear sites the day before.

Israel’s Defense Ministry said it hit targets including the notorious Evin Prison in the Iranian capital and the security headquarters of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards.

“The Iranian dictator will be punished with full force for attacking the Israeli home front,” the Ministry said.

Iran’s underground enrichment site at Fordo, which was one of those hit in Sunday’s attack by the U.S. on three nuclear facilities, was also struck again on Monday, Iranian state television reported. There was no immediate word on damage or who hit Fordo.

Nuclear fears mount after US strikes

In Vienna, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said he expected there to be heavy damage at the Fordo facility already following the Sunday’s U.S. airstrike there with sophisticated bunker-buster bombs.

“Given the explosive payload utilized … very significant damage … is expected to have occurred,” said Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

With the strikes on Sunday on Iranian nuclear sites, the United States inserted itself into Israel’s war, prompting fears of a wider regional conflict. Iran said the U.S. had crossed “a very big red line” with its risky gambit to strike the three sites with missiles and 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs.

Several Iranian officials, including Atomic Energy Organization of Iran spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi, have claimed Iran removed nuclear material from targeted sites ahead of time.

Grossi told the IAEA board of governors on Monday that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had informed him on June 13 that Iran would “adopt special measures to protect nuclear equipment and materials.”

“I indicated that any transfer of nuclear material from a safeguarded facility to another location in Iran must be declared,” Grossi said, without saying whether Iran had responded.

Israel and Iran press their attacks

Iran described its Monday attack on Israel as as a new wave of its Operation “True Promise 3,” saying it was targeting the Israeli cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv, according to Iranian state television.

Explosions were also heard in Jerusalem. There were no immediate reports of damage.

In Iran, witnesses reported Israeli airstrikes hit areas around Iran’s capital, Tehran, around midday. Iranian state television confirmed one Israeli strike hit the gate of Evin Prison.

The report shared what appeared to be black-and-white-surveillance footage of the strike. The prison is known for holding dual nationals and Westerners often used by Iran as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.

Evin also has specialized units for political prisoners and those with Western ties, run by the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The facility is the target of both U.S. and European Union sanctions.

Earlier Monday, Iranian Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, the chief of joint staff of armed forces, warned Washington its strikes had given Iranian forces a “free hand “ to “act against U.S. interests and its army.”

Tens of thousands of American troops are based in the Middle East, many in locations within range of short-range Iranian missiles.

Calls for de-escalation

The U.S. described its Sunday attack on the Fordo and Natanz enrichment facilities, as well as the Isfahan nuclear sit, as a one-off to take out Iran’s nuclear program, but President Donald Trump has warned of additional strikes if Tehran retaliates.

Mousavi described the American attacks as violating Iran’s sovereignty and being tantamount to invading the country, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

In the wake of the American attacks, calls came from across the globe for de-escalation and the return to diplomacy to try and resolve the conflict.

On Monday, the European Union’s top diplomat said the bloc remained “very much focused on the diplomatic solution.”

“The concerns of retaliation and this war escalating are huge,” Kaja Kallas said at the start of a foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels where Iran has jumped to the top of the agenda.

“Especially closing of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran is something that would be extremely dangerous and not good for anybody,” Kallas said, referring to a maritime route crucial for oil transport.

After Sunday’s attacks, Iranian officials repeated their longtime threats of possibly closing the key shipping lane.

Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only, previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites under a 2015 deal with the U.S., France, China, Russia, Britain and Germany in exchange for sanctions relief.

But after Trump pulled the U.S. unilaterally out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium up to 60% — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90% — and restricting access to its nuclear facilities.

As he arrived in Brussels on Monday for a meeting with his EU counterparts, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul renewed calls for Iran to agree again to direct talks with the United States but says Europe still has a role to play.

“We already made it very clear to the Iranian side that a real precondition for a settlement to the conflict is that Iran be ready to negotiate directly with the U.S.,” he said, while adding that the European group known as the E3 “will contribute what we can.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was meeting on Monday in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of Iran’s key allies.