Ceasefirin’ Still Ceasefirin’: Israel Strikes Iran After Ballistic Missile Attacks

Here’s a question: When does a ceasefire stop being a ceasefire? Inquiring minds want to know. When dealing with Iran and its Islamist proxies, the answer is never and always. 

Having agreed to the ceasefire in Lebanon demanded by Donald Trump, Israel accepted it as long as Hezbollah actually ceased its fire on northern Israel. Hezbollah demanded a full retreat rather than the ceasefire in place they had claimed to accept, and Israel warned repeatedly that further fire would prompt a return to full-scale operations. Hezbollah refused to stop firing missiles into Israel, and this weekend the IDF conducted the operations in Beirut that the ceasefire stopped a few days earlier.

Iran then retaliated overnight by firing ballistic missiles into Israel for the first time in two months, and Trump again tried to convince the Israelis to sit there and take it. Donald Trump may have his redlines, but so does Benjamin Netanyahu, and ballistic missile attacks clearly cross them:

Iran launched waves of attacks on Israel on Monday, and Israel launched strikes on central and western Iran. It was their first exchange of fire since the ceasefire.

Iranian state television reported the sound of explosions in Isfahan, Karaj, Tabriz and Tehran. Iran closed the airspace around Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport after the Israeli attack.

The semiofficial Fars and Mehr news agencies said Israeli strikes hit a petrochemical factory in the city of Mahshahr. They did not elaborate on any damage. The Israeli military later confirmed the strike on the plant, saying it targeted sites that produce materials for ballistic missiles. It also said it targeted truck-based missile launchers.

Israel said its strikes were in response to an Iranian missile attack. Tehran had warned on Sunday it would retaliate after Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs without warning. When Israel struck back, Iran fired again.

Trump posted two messages on Truth Social. The first ordered both Israel and Iran to stop firing, and the second claimed that both wanted to restore the ceasefire:

Israel and Iran must immediately stop “shooting.” President DONALD J. TRUMP

Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE! Final negotiations on “Peace” are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way. The Blockade will remain in place, and in full force and effect, until a “Final Deal” is reached. Things should move quickly. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

For now, Iran has announced that it will stop firing at Israel. Is it because Trump has them close to a deal that they will accept? Or is it because the IDF knew what to hit and how to cripple their ballistic-missile capacity even more?

Shortly afterward, Iran’s military headquarters said it had “delivered a painful response” to Israel and was ceasing operations by its armed forces. “Should aggression and hostile actions continue—including in southern Lebanon—far more severe and forceful measures than before will follow,” it said, according to Iranian state media.

The attacks and counterattacks, which began over the weekend and spilled into Monday, marked the first time Iran and Israel have targeted each other since a ceasefire brokered by the U.S. went into force in early April. They began with an Israeli strike on Beirut amid renewed fighting with the Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah and threatened to escalate a conflict that has been largely contained since then, despite a series of lower-intensity skirmishes.

Israel’s targets included a major Iranian petrochemical facility. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is responsible for protecting Iran’s regime, called it a dangerous move and threatened to put energy facilities across the region at risk.

I very much suspect that was the main factor in Iran’s sudden desire to align with Trump on the “ceasefire.” Netanyahu still hasn’t commented, but Israel’s ambassador to the US offered up some blunt talk about the attacks and the uselessness of the current status quo:

Iran fired 11 ballistic missiles at Israel today. Each one of those missiles can level an entire neighborhood and kill hundreds. No self-respecting country in the world would tolerate such an attack, and neither will Israel.

Israel is now targeting Iranian surface-to-surface…

— Ambassador Yechiel (Michael) Leiter (@yechielleiter) June 8, 2026

Israel is now targeting Iranian surface-to-surface missile launch sites, as well as infrastructure facilities unrelated to the energy sector.

The people of Lebanon have rejected Iran’s proxy, Hizballah, and have told Iran to get out of their country.

If Hizballah fires at Israel, its command centers in the Dahiya will be hit hard.

This has nothing to do with Iran.

Everyone has had enough of this maniacal Iranian regime.

If Mexico started launching ballistic missiles into Texas, we’d be fighting the second Mexican-American War within a heartbeat. Why should Israel sit on its hands while both Iran and its proxy army Hezbollah does the same to them? Especially after October 7?

Trump claims that he’s on the cusp of a Grand Bargain that would solve all of the region’s conflicts, and that only ignorance or stupidity is getting in the way. Unfortunately, Trump seems to be the one ignorant of the true nature of his enemies in the IRGC and its proxies, none of whom are remotely interested in peaceful coexistence with any “infidel” nation. Having opened Pandora’s box – with clear justification – in February, Trump seems more inclined to try closing it and acting as though it never opened in the first place. That ignores 47 years of taqiyya and hudnas from the mullahs of Tehran and their fascist military-industrial terror complex. Ahmad Vahidi is trying to rescue the IRGCs proxy strategy in the region to keep its dreams of global hegemony alive, and unless we get serious about the nature of that strategy, we will have wasted a lot of blood and treasure over the last three months to end up precisely where we started. 

My friend Scott Johnson sums it up in his classic understated manner at Power Line:

President Trump’s advertised reaction was not impressive. “I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate. Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike, and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,” he told Barak Ravid. I consider Ravid an unreliable narrator, but I trust him to get a quote right. That is pathetic. We don’t know what Trump actually told Netanyahu, but there is no way Israel is having fun or should suck it up and take it. Northern Israel is once again being depopulated by Hezbollah’s attacks.

What is Israel to do? Probably not live on the sufferance of Hezbollah and its Iranian masters. Not after October 7.

Neither should we suck it up and accept Iran’s exertion of control over the Strait of Hormuz, which means that we should not settle for an agreement that places control of the Strait at the sufferance of the Iranian regime.

Trump needs to stop lecturing Israel, and get back to dismantling the regime in Tehran before they launch more massacres. The last two months have proven to be a massive mistake, but Trump still has time and the resources to correct his course and resolve. 

Editor’s Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all. 

Help us report the truth about the Trump administration’s decisive actions to keep Americans safe and bring peace to the world. Join HotAir VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.