The ceasefire between Iran and Israel appears to be holding under pressure from Donald Trump.

By Jeff Mason, Alexander Cornwell and Parisa Hafezi ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE/TEL AVIV/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - An uneasy ceasefire began to take hold between Israel and Iran on Tuesday, under pressure from US President Donald Trump, raising hopes for an end to the biggest military confrontation in history between the Middle Eastern arch-enemies. Trump reprimanded both sides for initial violations of the truce he announced, but directed especially scathing criticism at Washington's close ally, Israel, over the scale of its attacks, telling it to "calm down now." 

Later, he said that Israel canceled further strikes under his command to preserve the agreement that ended a 12-day air war with Iran. Both Iran and Israel have sent signals that the conflict has ended, at least for now.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian hailed a "great victory" in a war that he said Iran had successfully ended, according to Iranian media. Iran's official news agency, IRNA, reported earlier that Pezeshkian said during a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that Iran was ready to resolve its differences with the US based on international frameworks. 

The Israeli military, in turn, said that all regions of the country had moved to full activity level, without restrictions, starting at 20 p.m. (local time). Its airport authority reported that Ben Gurion Airport had reopened. 

The Chief of Staff of the Israeli Armed Forces, Eyal Zamir, said that the military was at the "conclusion of a significant chapter, but the campaign against Iran is not yet over," although he added that the military was refocusing on its war against Hamas in Gaza.

Whether the truce between Israel and Iran can be maintained is a major question. Signaling a difficult road ahead, Israel and Iran took hours to acknowledge that they had accepted the ceasefire that Trump said he had brokered.

Nevertheless, oil prices fell and stock markets recovered worldwide, in a sign of confidence stemming from the ceasefire agreement, which was interpreted as meaning there would be no threat of disruption to critical Gulf oil supplies. 

Ceasefire violations?

Iran and Israel accused each other on Tuesday of violating the truce. Trump, en route to a NATO summit in Europe, admonished Israel, an ally whose air war he had joined two days earlier by dropping massive bombs on Iran's underground nuclear facilities. 

"All planes will turn around and go home... No one will be hurt, the ceasefire is in effect!" Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

This followed a post in which he had said: "Israel. Don't drop those bombs. If you do, it will be a serious violation. Bring your pilots home, now!" 

Before leaving the White House, Trump told reporters he was unhappy with both sides for violating the ceasefire, but particularly frustrated with Israel, which he said had "unloaded" soon after agreeing to the deal. "I have to get Israel to calm down now," Trump said. Iran and Israel have been fighting "for so long and so hard that they don't know what the hell they're doing." 

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that Israel had bombed a radar site near Tehran, in what it said was retaliation for Iranian missiles fired three and a half hours after the start of the ceasefire.

Israel decided to refrain from further attacks after a call between Netanyahu and Trump, but did not explicitly say whether the attack on the radar site occurred before or after the conversation. The Islamic Republic denied launching missiles and said that Israeli attacks continued for an hour and a half beyond the scheduled start of the truce. Pezeshkian later said that Tehran would not violate the ceasefire unless Israel did so, and that it was prepared to return to the negotiating table, without elaborating, according to the state news agency Nournews. 

A FEELING OF RELIEF 

In both countries, there was a palpable sense of relief that a way out of the war had been charted, 12 days after Israel initiated it with a surprise attack and two days after Trump joined it with attacks on Iranian nuclear targets. "We are happy, very happy. Who mediated or how it happened doesn't matter. The war is over. It should never have started," said Reza Sharifi, 38, returning from Rasht on the Caspian Sea to Tehran, where he had gone with his family to escape the airstrikes. 

Arik Daimant, a software engineer in Tel Aviv, said: "Unfortunately, it's a little too late for me and my family, because our house here was completely destroyed by the recent bombings last Sunday. But as they say, 'better late than never,' and I hope this ceasefire will be a new beginning." 

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to the NATO summit, Trump said he did not want Iran's governmental system to be overthrown. "I don't want that. I'd like to see things calm down as quickly as possible. Regime change creates chaos, and ideally, we don't want to see that much chaos," he said.

"Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, by the way, I think that's the last thing on their mind at the moment." In the hours leading up to the truce taking effect, four people -- one of them an off-duty Israeli soldier -- were killed by Iranian missiles that struck a residential building in Beersheba, southern Israel, according to the Israeli ambulance service. Iranian officials said nine people were killed in an attack on a residential building in northern Iran. 

NUCLEAR TARGETS 

Israel launched a surprise air strike on June 13, hitting Iranian nuclear facilities where it claims Iran was attempting to develop an atomic bomb and killing key military commanders in the worst blow against the Islamic Republic since the Iraq War in the 1980s. Iran maintains that its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful purposes and denies attempting to build nuclear weapons. 

Iranian authorities said hundreds of people were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Full information on the extent of the damage to nuclear and economic infrastructure could not be independently confirmed, as the media is tightly controlled in Iran. 

Retaliatory missile strikes killed 28 people in Israel, the first time a large number of Iranian missiles have penetrated its air defenses. A senior White House official said Trump brokered the ceasefire agreement with Netanyahu and that other administration officials were in contact with the Iranians. 

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