The End of the 12-Day War - Trump Announces Ceasefire Between Israel and Iran

Tel Aviv / Tehran / Washington - It was a morning between hope and rubble: On Tuesday, Israel and Iran agreed to the ceasefire plan proposed by US President Donald Trump, thus marking - at least for now - an end to an unprecedented twelve-day war that had shaken the entire Middle East. Preceding this agreement was one last deadly flare-up on both sides - an inferno that, just minutes before the ceasefire, claimed numerous lives. In the early hours of the morning, Iran fired one final salvo of ballistic missiles at Israeli territory - according to Israeli sources, at least five people were killed and eight more injured. Magen David Adom rescue services reported dramatic scenes in the south of the country, where several residential buildings were struck. During the night, Israel had already responded with a massive airstrike on targets across the Iranian state. It was a final show of force before the silence.

Donald Trump, who portrayed himself as the architect of the ceasefire, called the conflict the "12-Day War" - a deliberate reference to the Six-Day War of 1967, when Israel fought against several Arab nations. But this time, things were different: it was a direct exchange of blows between Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran, triggered by a surprise Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities on June 13 - allegedly to prevent an imminent nuclear threat. What followed was an escalation involving missiles, drones, and threats. Iran responded with attacks on Israel's heartland, and Israel retaliated with precision bombings. Between it all loomed a constant fear of a regional conflagration - and growing pressure on both governments to find a way out. That way out has now taken the form of a deal, brokered by the US and supported by several Arab states behind the scenes.

While Tehran and Tel Aviv were speaking of a ceasefire, the images coming out of Gaza remained harrowing. In Nuseirat, a refugee camp in central Gaza, Israeli troops and drones reportedly opened fire on a crowd of people waiting for aid deliveries. The Al-Awda Hospital reported 146 injured, 62 of them in critical condition. Many were transferred to nearby clinics in Deir al-Balah, where the bodies of six people killed in the incident were also brought in. The numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry paint a grim picture: since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023, around 56,000 people in Gaza have been killed. According to the ministry, more than half of the dead were women and children. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The war began with a brutal Hamas attack on southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage. Most of the hostages have since been released through ceasefire agreements. But the cost was immense - and the war continued to exact a heavy toll, even on the day of the ceasefire. Whether the truce will hold remains uncertain. The distrust is too deep, the wounds too raw. And yet - for a moment, there is silence. A silence that does not heal - but might, perhaps, prevent more deaths. And perhaps, some dare to hope, this is the beginning of a process that turns the "12-Day War" into more than just another chapter in an endless cycle of violence.