Israel strikes – Israel launched airstrikes on central and western Iran after being targeted by missiles, as Iran reported explosions across multiple cities and closed airspace around Tehran’s main airport. At the same time, a U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia came under fire
Monday began with a familiar kind of unease—sirens in Saudi Arabia. then explosions reported across Iran—after the most serious exchange of hostilities since an April ceasefire. The sequence raised the specter of a return to heavy fighting and added pressure to a fragile mediation effort to end the war.
Iranian state television said explosions were heard in Isfahan, Tabriz and Tehran. It did not immediately provide details about what was hit. The report followed Iran’s launch of missiles at Israel earlier in the day—the first such bombardment since the fragile ceasefire took effect in early April.
Israel said it struck Iran on Monday after being targeted by missiles. The strikes came as Iran had threatened retaliation following an earlier Israeli attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs without warning on Sunday. defying a request from Washington days earlier to stand down. Israel said the Iranian-backed Hezbollah fired at northern Israel earlier in the day.
The regional picture looked even more unstable when Saudi Arabia sounded missile alert sirens Monday morning in an area home to an air base that hosts U.S. forces. Saudi state media reported the alert around its Al Kharj governorate, home to Prince Sultan Air Base. It did not elaborate, but the timing was hard to ignore: the alert came after Israel launched strikes targeting Iran.
On the Israel-Yemen front. Israel also said it detected a missile launched from Yemen targeting the country. and that sirens sounded across Israel after the warning. Yemen is home to the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. who have fired missiles at Israel during the Israel-Hamas war and later. though they have not been fully involved in the Iran war.
At the center of the political tension is the dispute over who is driving the response. In a telephone interview with The Financial Times, U.S. President Donald Trump—before the Israeli strikes—insisted he dictated terms to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on how the war should be prosecuted.
“He won’t have any choice,” Trump told the newspaper. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He (Netanyahu) doesn’t call the shots.”
Trump’s remarks followed his urging of Israel not to respond further. The Israeli action, coming after Iran’s missile attack and following Sunday’s strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, appeared to clash with that message.
The White House did not respond to messages Sunday about the strikes and whether they were done in coordination with the U.S.
Even within Iran, the impact of the latest exchange moved quickly. Iran closed airspace around its main airport—the Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran—after the Israeli attack.
Israel said it struck central and western Iran after missile fire. Tehran, for its part, said explosions were heard in several cities.
The overlap of events—missile launches, airspace closures, alerts near a U.S. base. and strikes hitting multiple regions—left one clear impression: the ceasefire’s quiet was fragile. and the timing this week has made mediation harder. not easier. Each new move has widened the distance between public warnings and actions on the ground.
Israel Iran airstrikes Iranian missiles Hezbollah Saudi missile alerts Prince Sultan Air Base Yemen missile Houthi rebels April ceasefire Trump Netanyahu war response