A fragile ceasefire that lasted only very few hours
di Valentina Cordero (Corrispondente da New York)
Both Israel and Iran violated the truce shortly after taking effect
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f* they are doing.” This is what the United States President Trump said at the White House on Tuesday June 24th, following attacks launched by Iran and Israel right after he had announced a ceasefire agreement.
On Tuesday morning, both countries entered a ceasefire, possibly ending what was called the 12 days conflict. The truce was proclaimed on Monday by the United States President Trump, but the fragile agreement didn’t last that long because shortly after taking effect, Israel accused Iran of launching further attacks on its territory. Trump said he was very unhappy in particular with Israel, which violated the ceasefire striking a radar site north of Tehran right after the ceasefire agreement and following some accusations that Iran fired missiles at Israel. But the allegations were immediately rejected by Iran.
Following a call between President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel decided to refrain from any further attacks, in order to sustain the ceasefire. After the call, President Trump, who is on his way to the Netherlands for a NATO summit,posted a message saying that “Israel is not going to attack Iran, all planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly”plane wave” to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect.”
On Saturday June 21st, the United States launched an operation, called the Midnight Hammer, in order to strike with 30,000-pound-bunker-busters three Iranian nuclear facilities: Natanz, Fordo, and Isfahan.
As a response, Iran launched its missile at the US military base Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on Monday that caused no injuries. The attack to the largest United Stated military base in the Middle East was called by President Trump a “weak response.”
“We will not submit to anyone’s aggression, this is the logic of the Iranian nation,” said in a statement Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Since Israel’s first attack on June 13th, more than 974 people were killed in Iran, and 3,458 others were injured, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists. In Israel, 28 people were killed in Iranian strikes and more than 1,000 wounded.
