Trump accuses Iran of shooting down a US helicopter in Hormuz and warns that it will respond

BarcelonaThe President of the United States, Donald Trump, has accused Iran of shooting down a US helicopter patrolling the Strait of Hormuz and has promised a response. "Our Great Military just informed me that the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache helicopters last night while it was patrolling the Strait of Hormuz," Trump 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 traveling in the 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 specialized in unmanned drones. Initially, the US reported the rescue and assured that they were investigating the incident, but did not provide details on the causes.

The American threat, which further fuels doubts about the viability of the ceasefire, comes as Israel has renewed attacks against Lebanon, ignoring Iran's warnings. On Monday, the crossfire between Tehran and Tel Aviv, which attacked each other directly for the first time since April, shook the ceasefire. Trump 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 with the offensive in Lebanon.

have exchanged the crudest insultsShortly before, the Israeli army had issued evacuation orders for different areas of Tyre, including the Christian quarter which it stated it would attack "soon". Tel Aviv accuses Hezbollah militants of hiding in this area and, under 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 activity 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 sites of great historical importance. 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 UNRWA Palestinian refugee camps and many other people who have fled from other towns in southern Lebanon, where the Israeli army already occupies the territory up to the south of the Litani River. The normalcy for 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 dropped out of school.

Israel warns of another harsh blow

Precisely the trickle of Iranian projectiles in Lebanon – which has left nearly 4,000 dead since March – has derailed the 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 crudest 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, assured this Tuesday that the attack Israel carried out on Sunday against Iran was just the "preamble to a much more significant blow". "We are prepared to return and perpetrate another serious and far-reaching attack against Iran," said the military officer during a visit to a training center, who also boasted about his troops' operations in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Iranian media report that Israeli attacks on Monday 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.