Trump calls Netanyahu after Israel, Iran resume fire exchange

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday following an overnight exchange of fire between Israel and Iran — the first military clashes between the two nations since an April ceasefire, The Korea Times reported.

The renewed fighting — involving Iranian missile strikes on Israel and Israeli counterstrikes on military sites inside Iran — raises fresh fears about a broader regional escalation at a moment when the Trump-Netanyahu alliance itself appears increasingly strained.

Iran launched missiles toward Israel overnight, and Israeli forces responded by striking military targets inside the Islamic republic, The Korea Times reported Monday. The exchange was the first time the two countries had traded fire since a ceasefire quieted hostilities in April.

Trump moved on two fronts in response. Earlier Monday, he posted on social media urging both sides to stand down, writing that "Israel and Iran must immediately stop 'shooting.'" He then placed a direct call to Netanyahu later in the day, according to The Korea Times.

The phone call unfolded against a backdrop of visible friction between Washington and Jerusalem. The Korea Times reported that Trump had recently called Netanyahu "crazy" during a separate conversation — language that reflects what reporters described as a relationship between the two allies growing increasingly testy.

The overnight flare-up came roughly two months after the April ceasefire and found the White House scrambling to manage both an active armed confrontation and the optics of a fracturing partnership with one of its closest partners in the region.

The April ceasefire had been one of several tentative pauses in a region that has seen repeated cycles of escalation. Whether Monday's call between Trump and Netanyahu produces any tangible restraint on either side remains unclear, The Korea Times reported.