Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded Tuesday to U.S. President Donald Trump’s outburst by presenting a timeline of events leading up to the ceasefire and in the hours thereafter.
Netanyahu agreed to Trump’s demand to curtail Israel’s response to Iran’s violations of the ceasefire. However, he clearly felt the need to set the record straight about who, in fact, had violated it.
Trump had alleged on Truth Social and to reporters that both Israel and Iran had violated the ceasefire, and reiterated his demand that both abide by its terms. He suggested that he had been especially angry at Israel about its actions.
A statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office laid out the timeline of events:
The ceasefire was set for 07:00 this morning. At 03:00, Israel forcefully attacked in the heart of Tehran, struck regime targets and eliminated hundreds of Basij and Iranian security forces personnel.
Shortly before the ceasefire was due to take effect, Iran launched a barrage of missiles, one of which took the lives of four of our citizens in Be’er Sheva. The ceasefire took effect at 07:00.
At 07:06, Iran launched one missile at Israeli territory, and two additional missiles at 10:25. These missiles were either intercepted or fell in open areas, and caused neither casualties nor damage.
In response to Iran’s violations, the Air Force destroyed a radar installation near Tehran.
Pursuant to the conversation between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israel has refrained from additional attacks.
In the conversation, President Trump expressed his great appreciation for Israel, which achieved all of its objectives for the war, as well as his confidence in the stability of the ceasefire.
Trump decided not to respond to Iranian attacks on U.S. military bases on Monday, and seems to have expected Israel to react the same way.
However, in the context of the deaths of Israeli civilians, and the agreement of both sides to end hostilities on time, Netanyahu had to respond to Iran’s violations, just as Israel has done in Lebanon — and would have faced the outrage of the Israeli public had he not done so.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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