Tel Aviv (dpa) — Israel lifted nearly all emergency restrictions on the civilian population Tuesday evening as a fragile ceasefire with Iran appeared to be holding after 12 days of fighting.
The Israeli military said the decision, made after a fresh security assessment, allows schools to resume in-person classes and permits gatherings without limitations across most of the country.
Some Home Front Command restrictions remain in areas near the Gaza Strip due to ongoing military operations against Hamas, including limits on crowd sizes.
Israel’s airport authority also announced a return to full operations, stating there were no longer any limits on incoming or outgoing flights.
In the wake of Israeli airstrikes on Iranian nuclear and military sites that began on June 13, only limited emergency flights had been operating, as Iran fired barrages of missiles and drones in retaliation.
Despite the ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump, Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir stressed that the campaign against arch-rival Iran was now over.
“We have concluded a significant phase, but the campaign against Iran is not over,” Zamir said in a statement on Tuesday, without elaborating on future plans.
He added that the Israeli military was now entering a “new phase” concentrated on Gaza, where Israel has been fighting the Palestinian militant group Hamas for 20 months.
“Now the focus shifts back to Gaza — to bring the hostages home and to dismantle the Hamas regime,” he said.
Zamir also claimed that Israel’s air campaign had significantly damaged Iran’s military capabilities: “We’ve set Iran’s nuclear project back by years, and the same applies to its missile programme.” These assertions could not be independently verified.
Iran maintains that its nuclear programme is strictly civilian in nature. However, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported that Iran possesses over 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% purity, which is just below weapons-grade.
Experts say the full extent of the damage to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure from the joint Israeli and US strikes remains unclear.
The US attacked the Fordow and Natanz nuclear facilities with bunker-busting bombs at the weekend.
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