The Middle East is bracing for war again. Iran fired missiles at Israel late Sunday in the first such bombardment in the two months since a ceasefire. Israel launched airstrikes early Monday targeting central and western Iran in response.

The truce in the Iran war that was reached in April has not spread to Lebanon, where Israel has been battling Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants. Israel says it is defending its northern communities that face Hezbollah drone and rocket fire.

The tenuous ceasefire in the Middle East has held up, sometimes barely, despite being shaken by repeated flare-ups over the past two months. But it is now coming the closest yet to blowing apart and sending the region back into full-scale war — and the detonator is Lebanon.

Israeli strikes against Hezbollah militants in Beirut over the weekend brought retaliation from their key sponsor, Iran, which launched its first attacks against Israel since the ceasefire was reached April 7. Israel responded with strikes on targets throughout Iran, while Iran's proxies in Yemen and Iraq threatened to widen the war. The U.S. and other mediators rushed to prevent the fighting from spiraling out of control.

Israel's latest strikes on Lebanon and Iran have made clear that U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who started the war in lockstep, want different things.

Trump had publicly warned Israel not to strike Beirut. When it did, on Sunday, Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles at Israel for the first time since the April ceasefire. Israel then struck Iran, with which Trump has been engaged in weeks of high-stakes negotiations.

For more than two years, hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza and Lebanon have lived in dread of Avichay Adraee's next social media post.

Israel's Arabic-language military spokesman has been the animated face of its campaigns and the main source of warnings ahead of strikes and major offensives. That has made him one of the most recognizable Israelis in the Arab world and a focus of fury as well as some fascination.

The heads of the Pakistani and Lebanese armed forces agreed to boost cooperation on Tuesday as they met in Pakistan with peace talks over the Middle East war dragging on.

Pakistan has been mediating between the United States and Iran to end the months-long conflict, with Tehran insisting that any deal should include Lebanon.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has vowed to press on with Israel's military campaign in Lebanon, despite a warning from Iran that any such action would prompt the Islamic republic to take "severe" measures in response.

"The IDF will continue to operate in Lebanon against the terrorist organization Hezbollah," Katz said in a statement Monday, adding that Israel would strike Beirut's southern suburbs, known as Dahieh, in retaliation for every attack on northern Israel.

The Israeli army ordered Tuesday residents of the historic city of Tyre and its suburbs, including the city's Christian neighborhood, to evacuate ahead of expected strikes.

"Urgent warning to the residents of the city of Tyre, including the Christian quarter, and the camps and surrounding neighborhoods," read a message posted on X by the Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee.

A senior Hezbollah official told AFP on Monday that the Iran-backed group has had "no direct contact" with President Donald Trump, despite recent statements from the US leader suggesting otherwise.

Washington considers Hezbollah a "terrorist" group, including both its military and political wings, and recently imposed sanctions on several of its lawmakers.

Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos said Monday that 29 Lebanese army members have been killed in Israeli strikes since March, two days after an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in southern Lebanon killed three members of the Lebanese army, including a brigadier general and a captain.

Morcos said that since the Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2, three police, one member of the General Security Directorate and 13 state security members have been killed in Israeli attacks. Also killed was a member of the parliament’s security.

The Iranian military's joint command said Monday it was halting its offensive operations, after Israel and Iran exchanged fire in their first attacks since the U.S. struck a ceasefire with Tehran two months ago.

Iran had delivered a "painful response" to Israel and "accordingly, the cessation of armed forces operations is hereby announced", the Khatam al-Anbiya command said in a statement carried by state television.