Israel is agreeing to US President Donald Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire with Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting.
He said, quoted by the Cabinet press office, that Israel had achieved “all objectives” in the 12-day operation against Iran, in particular removing the threat from its nuclear and missile programmes.
In addition, the Israel Defense Forces achieved “complete control” over Tehran’s skies, inflicted serious damage on the military leadership and destroyed dozens of government targets in central Iran, Netanyahu said.
He also emphasised that Israel would respond strongly to any violation of the ceasefire.
Before that, Iran’s state television reported the start of a ceasefire in the conflict with Israel on the morning of 24 June.
And hours before that, US President Donald Trump said that a “complete and absolute ceasefire” had been agreed between Israel and Iran. He later added that the truce between Israel and Iran was in place and called on both sides not to violate it.
The ceasefire was reportedly brokered by Qatar, which passed on the US truce proposal to Iran.
Meanwhile, immediately before the announcement Israel and Iran continued mutual strikes. An Iranian missile strike at dawn on 24 June reported four deaths in Israel, while Israel conducted airstrikes on targets throughout Iran before dawn.
On 23 June, Iran launched missile strikes on the U.S. Al-Udeid air base in Qatar in response to U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities the previous day.
Trump stated that no Americans were hurt and almost no damage was done as a result of this Iranian strike. He also called it” a very weak response “to the” US destruction ” of Iran’s nuclear facilities during last weekend’s attack and thanked Iran for the United States’ early communication, which he said prevented loss of life and injuries.
Many experts saw this as a sign that Iran did not want to escalate the crisis, given the limited strike against US interests and the fact that Tehran had warned Washington.
Israel began striking Iran on the night of 13 June, the US launched several strikes on the night of 22 June. They justified their actions on the threat of Tehran building nuclear weapons.
Iran has repeatedly claimed that its nuclear programme is peaceful.
At the same time, according to the IAEA, Iran had more than 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%, which is close to the level sufficient to create several nuclear warheads in a short time.