Crisis In the Middle East

Israel started off the bombing in fear of Iran’s creation of nuclear weapons. Israel and Iran have been in a shadow war with each other for decades. Iran, for example, has funded terrorist groups to hurt Israel, like Hamas. Once Israel saw that Iran was trying to develop nuclear weapons of its own, Israel tried to stop them. Their attack focused on Iran’s nuclear facilities and military bases, and involved over 200 airstrikes and over 330 munitions(bombs). Israel wasn’t the only country starting to fear Iran, as the US also had political interests in hindering Iran’s military power. The US had initially transferred bombs going to Ukraine to Israel and is preemptively moving military ships to the Middle East. Donald Trump concludes that this military action taken by Israel has been beneficial and is pressuring Iran to make some important choices. He says he will determine “within the next two weeks” if the United States will bomb Iran.

Iran responded to Israel’s attack by sending its own missiles towards Tel Aviv, Israel’s capital. Although most of the rockets were destroyed in the air by Israel’s Iron Dome, which is Israel’s defense system that intercepts Iran’s rockets, many rockets got through and exploded. Iran has launched missiles every night at Israel, and one has reportedly hit a hospital in Beersheba, Israel, causing mass casualties.

Later on June 21st, President Trump ordered the US military to bomb Iran in Operation Midnight Hammer. The bombs only damaged 3 Iranian nuclear facilities and didn’t cause much civilian harm.

After this destruction, Iran and Israel signed a ceasefire(no more war and fighting) to hopefully create some peace. Although both sides violated the agreement, the ceasefire seems to be holding strong.