Iran denies breaking truce as Israel orders new strikes

Steve Holland, Andrew Mills and Parisa Hafezi | June 24, 2025

Israel’s defence minister has ordered the military to strike Tehran in response to what he says were Iranian missiles fired in a violation of the ceasefire announced hours earlier by US President Donald Trump.

Iran said it had not violated the ceasefire. The armed forces general staff denied there had been any launch of missiles towards Israel in recent hours, Iran’s Nour News reported.

The developments on Tuesday raised early doubts about the ceasefire, intended to end 12 days of war.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement he had ordered Israel’s military to “continue high-intensity operations targeting regime assets and terror infrastructure in Tehran” in light of “Iran’s blatant violation of the ceasefire declared by the President of the United States”.

Hours earlier, Trump had posted on Truth Social: “THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT. PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!”

Both Israel and Iran had confirmed the ceasefire after Trump’s announcement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country had achieved the goals it set in launching its June 13 surprise attack on Iran – to destroy its nuclear program and missile capabilities.

“Israel thanks President Trump and the United States for their support in defence and their participation in eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat,” Netanyahu had said.

Iran’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, said its military had forced Israel to “unilaterally accept defeat and accept a ceasefire”.

Iran’s forces would “keep their hands on the trigger” to respond to “any act of aggression by the enemy”, it said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had said Iran would halt its retaliatory strikes provided that Israel stopped attacking as of 4am (10.30am AEST) in Tehran.

In the last reported strikes before the ceasefire, missiles killed four people in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, the Israeli ambulance service said. 

Iranian officials said nine people including a nuclear scientist were killed in a strike on a residential building in northern Iran.

Despite the early threats to the ceasefire, the response across the region and wider world was largely one of relief at the prospect of an end to the biggest direct confrontation ever between the two foes.

Israel attacked on June 13, hitting Iranian nuclear sites and killing the top echelon of its military command in the worst threat faced by the Islamic Republic since war with Iraq in the 1980s.

During the campaign, Israel said it was prepared to topple Iran’s clerical rulers if necessary to achieve its aims and struck symbolic targets unrelated to the military, culminating on Monday with a strike on Tehran’s Evin prison.

Iranian officials say hundreds of people have been killed in air strikes, but full information about the extent of the damage cannot be confirmed independently, with media tightly controlled.

Iran’s retaliatory missile strikes killed 28 people in Israel, the first time large numbers of Iranian missiles have penetrated its defences.

Trump entered the war on Saturday with strikes on Iranian nuclear sites buried under a mountain using huge bombs that Israel does not possess.

A senior White House official said Trump had brokered the ceasefire deal in a call with Netanyahu, and Israel had agreed so long as Iran did not launch further attacks.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani secured Tehran’s agreement during a call with Iranian officials, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters.

US Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US special envoy Steve Witkoff were in direct and indirect contact with the Iranians, a White House official said.

Iran had responded to the US participation in the air strikes by firing missiles on Monday at the biggest US military base in the Middle East, in Qatar.

No one was hurt in that strike, with Iran’s retaliation apparently calibrated to allow de-escalation afterwards.

The US had been negotiating with Iran to agree curbs to its nuclear program after Trump quit a previous agreement in 2018. 

Iran has always said its nuclear program is peaceful.

with AP and PA