Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday morning that Israel has accepted a ceasefire with Iran, following 12 days of bloody conflict which threatened to escalate into a full-blown Middle East war.
The news was welcomed in the UK. Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said it was “good news, if the ceasefire holds”.
But within two hours, Israel said it had identified missiles launched from Iran, reigniting the conflict.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a statement, expelling that he has ordered the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to "respond forcefully to Iran's violation of the ceasefire with intense strikes against regime targets in the heart of Tehran".
Iranian state media denies firing a missile after the ceasefire.
The news comes less than 12 hours after Donald Trump announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a ceasefire.
“PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, ‘THE 12 DAY WAR’,” he wrote.
So what exactly is a ceasefire — and why is it so difficult to agree to one?
What is a ceasefire?
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the official definition of a ceasefire is "an agreement, usually between two armies, to stop fighting in order to allow discussions about peace."
Ceasefires have existed for centuries, but it is only in the last 50 years or so that specific terminology has appeared, such as cessation of hostilities, humanitarian pauses and safe zones.
The negotiation of a ceasefire involves navigating a complex web of political, historical, social, and strategic factors. Finding common ground amid these complexities is often a delicate and time-consuming process.
To further complicate things, there are no provisions in international humanitarian law about how ceasefires should be negotiated, what they should contain or how they should be enforced.
On January 12, a ceasefire was announced between Israel and Hamas, following months of negotiations led by the US, Qatar and Egypt. The agreement ended on March 18, when Israeli aircraft attacked what it said were Hamas targets across Gaza.
In May, Israel agreed to a US-proposed ceasefire plan for Gaza, according to the White House, while Hamas said that the proposal remains "under discussion”.
The proposals include a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 28 Israeli hostages alive and dead in the first week, in exchange for the release of 1,236 Palestinian prisoners and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians.
What will happen to the Israel-Iran ceasefire?
It is unclear what will happen to the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, following Israel’s claims that rockets were fired into the country.
“We don't know how that missile came to be fired, whether it was a mistake or another explanation, but senior government figures view it as a violation of the ceasefire deal”, Dan Johnson wrote in the BBC.
The chief of the general staff of the IDF announced that the military will "respond with force" to what it describes as Iran’s "severe violation".
Iran's General Staff of the Armed Forces, Abdolrahim Mousavi, has reiterated that missiles were not fired towards Israel after the ceasefire came into place, according to Iranian state media.
