The United States and Iran exchange attacks, but the ceasefire holds

BarcelonaThe United States has launched a new wave of attacks against Iran. Late Tuesday evening, Central Command reported that its forces had begun firing "self-defense" projectiles into Iranian territory in response to the downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter. "The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression," the U.S. military said on X. Meanwhile, the Fars news agency reported several explosions in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan, near the Strait of Hormuz. This is the first time the U.S. has attacked Iran since the ceasefire. According to the news portal Axios, the target of the attacks would be Iranian air defense and radar systems around the strait.

On Monday, the crossfire between Tehran and Tel Aviv, which attacked each other directly for the first time since April, shook the ceasefireDuring Tuesday afternoon, U.S. President Donald Trump accused Iran of shooting down an American helicopter patrolling the Strait of Hormuz and promised retaliation. "Our Great Military just informed me that the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache helicopters last night while patrolling the Strait of Hormuz," he wrote in a post on his social network, Truth Social, and warned that "the United States must necessarily respond to this attack."

The two American pilots, who were traveling in an army AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, are safe and sound, according to the president. The aircraft crashed near the coast of Oman around three in the morning on Tuesday (local time), and two hours later the soldiers were rescued by a navy unit specializing in unmanned drones. The US Army's Central Command has remained more cautious. It has limited itself to reporting the rescue and has assured that they are investigating the incident, but has not provided details of the causes.

Iran has not confirmed responsibility for the events, nor has it addressed the incident directly. However, in clear reference to the White House's accusations, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has recommended that foreign forces near Iranian territory leave if they do not want to be at risk. Otherwise, they will be "at constant risk due to their own human errors, simple accidents, or the possibility of being caught in crossfire," the Iranian leader assured. Similarly, he insisted that the Strait of Hormuz is not international waters, but shared territory between Iran and Oman. "It is thousands of kilometers from the US coast. The maritime borders are very clear," he reiterated.

have exchanged the crudest expletivesTrump called for an end to hostilities and assured that he would reach an agreement with Iran in "two or three days," but Iranian leaders warned that they would resume attacks if Israel continued its offensive in Lebanon.

Less than 24 hours later, the Israeli army has tested Iran's patience and launched several projectiles across the country, leaving at least 29 dead, according to health authorities. The most powerful offensive was against a residential neighborhood in the historic city of Tyre, one of the largest cities in the country and one of the oldest in the world. Nine people died there and dozens more were injured, including two paramedics, in what is already the deadliest offensive in the city since the start of the war.

Shortly before, the Israeli army had issued evacuation orders for different areas of Tyre, including the Christian quarter which it claims it will attack "soon". Tel Aviv accuses Hezbollah militants of hiding in this area and, on this pretext, urged the city's Christians to demand that the militia leave if they did not want to be forced to leave. Hundreds of residents have fled during the day today, and civil defense teams have relocated the most vulnerable people to temporary shelters.

Doctors Without Borders has expressed concern about this practice – forcing the population to leave their homes under threat of bombing them – which it considers constitutes "forced displacement". "[These actions] expose people to further harm by forcing them to move in unsafe and chaotic conditions," the organization denounces. The Israeli offensive has also forced the NGO to suspend activities in several nearby hospitals and in some of the mobile clinics it has deployed in the city.

On the other hand, the attacks have caused damage to buildings, businesses, and places of great historical significance. In fact, UNESCO has issued an alert because up to three protected sites have been severely damaged by the impact of Israeli projectiles, despite having reinforced protection: the archaeological site of Tyre – declared a World Heritage Site –, Beaufort Castle, and Shamaa Citadel. For this reason, the United Nations agency denounces that "cultural heritage is also threatened by war".

In addition to archaeological remains of great value, Tyre hosts three Palestinian refugee camps of UNRWA and many other people who have fled from other towns in southern Lebanon, where the Israeli army already occupies the territory up to the southern bank of the Litani River. The normality of all these vulnerable people has been completely interrupted. As UNESCO has recalled, seventeen schools have been destroyed and more than a hundred have been damaged. Furthermore, the war has forced nearly half a million children to leave classrooms and more than a million have abandoned their studies.

Israel warns of another hard blow

Precisely the trickle of Israeli projectiles into Lebanon – which has left nearly 4,000 dead since March – has derailed negotiations between Tehran and Washington to end the conflict. And it has also been a cause of discord between Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, who have exchanged the harshest insults of their celebrated friendship. But not even the harsh words of the American president seem to curb Israel's intentions. The head of the Israeli army's general staff, General Eyal Zamir, stated this Tuesday that the attack Israel carried out on Sunday against Iran was only the "prelude to a much more significant blow". "We are prepared to return and carry out another serious and large-scale attack against Iran," said the military man during a visit to a training center, who also boasted about his troops' operations in Lebanon.

In parallel, Iranian media report that Monday's Israeli attacks against Iran killed two Iranian air defense soldiers, Bahman Hosseini and Alireza Abiri, who will be buried this Tuesday in the capital. The two commanders, who were "carrying out their duties" when they died, are the first military casualties recorded in Monday's attacks.