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Iran fires missiles at Israel as Trump defends ceasefire

Sherif Tarek, Galit Altstein and Eltaf Najafizada, Bloomberg News on

Published in News & Features

Iran fired several rounds of missiles toward Israel as President Donald Trump pushed to preserve a faltering ceasefire in the U.S.’s 100-day conflict with Tehran.

The Israel Defense Forces said late Sunday that it had identified and intercepted missiles fired from Iran, adding that emergency services reported no casualties.

Mohsen Rezaee, a military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, told the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency that the missile launch toward Israel was a “warning to cease their hostile actions” in Lebanon.

The latest attack follows hard on the heels of an escalation between Israel and Hezbollah. Early Sunday, the Lebanese militia attacked targets in northern areas of the Jewish state, whose army responded with a strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs killing two and injuring 11. At the same time, the U.S. and Iran appear to be making little progress toward an interim deal to end the war.

Trump told Fox News after the attack that he still wants a negotiated solution as he urged Iran to resume negotiations. “You shot your missiles,” he was quoted as saying. “That’s enough.”

Trump also criticized Israel for its Beirut strikes on Sunday.

In a phone call with Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, Trump told the Israeli leader not to retaliate against Iran’s missile attack and to allow more time for diplomacy, Axios reported, citing a senior U.S. official and an Israeli source familiar with details of the call. Netanyahu pushed back but ultimately “pseudo agreed” to stand down, Axios reported, citing the U.S. official.

Separately, the U.S. president told the Financial Times that his Israeli counterpart would have to accept any deal the U.S. strikes with Iran. “I call the shots. I call all the shots,” he said. Netanyahu “doesn’t call the shots.”

The past week saw the worst flare-up in tensions since the truce started around April 8. Negotiations between Washington and Tehran are bogged down over the fate of billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets and a parallel conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Oil jumped after Iran launched the missile barrage, with Brent crude rising 2.6% to $95.60 a barrel. The U.S. dollar, the haven of choice since the Middle East conflict began, gained against all of its Group-of-10 peers.

Hezbollah last week rejected a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon announced by the State Department just hours before. Iran has demanded a ceasefire in Lebanon before an accord can be reached with the U.S.

 

In Washington, Trump’s team is floating a plan to steer Iranian assets frozen in the U.S. toward helping Persian Gulf allies rebuild from damage inflicted by the Islamic Republic.

Trump said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he would not unfreeze any Iranian assets or lift any sanctions against Iran as part of an initial deal.

“If they behave, if they do a good job, we start talking” about releasing the assets, Trump told Kristen Welker in the interview taped Friday for NBC’s Meet the Press.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi poured cold water on the idea, saying in a post on X that his country’s assets “are neither Washington’s war spoils nor a fund for paying its allies.” He also noted that Iran is still demanding “full compensation” for its own damages from the war Israel and the U.S. started on Feb. 28.

The dispute risks derailing the discussions on a truce extension, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and future talks over Iran’s nuclear program.

Here’s more on the war:

• Israel said it canceled school across the country for Monday.

• Several rockets breached Jordanian airspace Sunday evening following a “renewed escalation” in the region, Minister of Government Communication Mohammad Momani said in a post on X.

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(With assistance from Susanne Barton, Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Arsalan Shahla, Jon Herskovitz and Anand Krishnamoorthy.)


©2026 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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