TEHRAN – Iran and Israel said on June 8 that hostilities between them had halted, after the two countries exchanged strikes that threatened to reignite the Middle East war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the “fire on that front is contained” hours after Tehran said it had stopped its military action.
Tehran launched missiles at Israel on June 8 over Israel’s ongoing war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel then struck back, despite efforts by US President Donald Trump to dissuade Netanyahu.
That triggered another round of Iranian missiles, before Tehran announced it would cease fire.
Iran has sought for weeks to link the wider Middle East truce, in place since April 8, to Israel’s war against Hezbollah, warning that attacks on Lebanon would force it to act.
Tehran said on June 8 it would attack again if Israel persisted with its strikes in Lebanon, while Netanyahu warned in turn that should Iran “make the mistake of resuming attacks against us, we will respond with full force”.
Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz insisted that the campaign in Lebanon would carry on regardless and said Israel would strike the Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut in retaliation for each attack on northern Israel by the militant group.
Trump, who has reportedly grown increasingly exasperated with Netanyahu, had earlier urged both sides to stop “shooting” and said that “final negotiations” towards peace would proceed “subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way.”
The Israeli premier, though, said in a televised statement he had told Trump that “Israel has a full right to self-defence, and we are exercising it as required”.
Iran fired nearly 30 missiles at Israel overnight, according to the Israeli military, and Israel targeted military sites in the Islamic republic.
No casualties have been reported in either Israel or Iran after the exchange of fire.
But violence in Lebanon continued on June 8, with an Israeli strike killing five people in the southern city of Tyre while another in the Nabatieh district left seven dead, Lebanese state media reported.
A mourner throws flowers at the coffin of a Lebanese soldier killed by Israeli bombardment, during his funeral near Jezzine in southern Lebanon on June 8, 2026.
PHOTO: AFP
The Israeli military said it had identified projectiles launched towards its soldiers operating in southern Lebanon, some of which were intercepted while one landed near troops without causing casualties.
On June 8 in Tehran, there was little sign of any return to war, with cafe terraces packed.
Traffic seemed lighter than usual for a weekday, suggesting that some people had stayed home and there were also many more people queueing at petrol stations.
Maryam, 41, an accountant in Tehran, described “a sense of uncertainty and confusion.”
“You don’t know if there’s going to be a war, nor do you know if the peace agreement will last. Nothing is clear. People are frustrated,” she said.
Residents of Tel Aviv meanwhile went to shelters as sirens went off.
“I hope it will be short, but you can never know. Last time we thought it will be short, and then it was a month, so I don’t know,” said Jonathan Ariel, 30.
The world’s main crude contracts, Brent North Sea and West Texas Intermediate, surged by more than five percent in Asian trading hours on worries that the war would resume but eased later in the day, logging gains of 1.3 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively.
The conflict has seen Tehran all but halt shipments of the Gulf’s oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz while Washington has imposed a blockade on Iran’s ports.
The US military said it struck and disabled an unladen oil tanker on June 8 that violated the ports blockade.
The exchange of fire between Iran and Israel came at a critical moment for diplomatic efforts to end the conflict involving mediator Pakistan.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei warned at a press conference in Tehran on June 8 morning that diplomacy was continuing but could be affected by the fighting.
As he was speaking at the foreign ministry, a huge explosion shook the building, followed by repeated explosions believed to be from air defence systems, the AFP reporter said.
Pakistan Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi visited Tehran to deliver what he said was a “special letter” to Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, according to Iranian state television.
He has since returned to Pakistan, an official Pakistani source said on June 8.
Iranian President Masoud Pezehskian posted on X that Tehran was still “at the negotiating table”. AFP