JERUSALEM — Israel and Iran pulled back from their first direct missile exchange since the April ceasefire after President Trump pressed both governments to stop, even as Israeli aircraft struck the southern Lebanese port of Tyre on Tuesday and killed at least eight people, Lebanon's Health Ministry said.

The pause halts an escalation that began Sunday, when Israel hit a Hezbollah command center in a Beirut suburb and Iran answered with a missile barrage at Israeli territory, the first time Tehran had retaliated directly for an Israeli operation against the Lebanese group. Continued bombing in Lebanon now tests whether the de-escalation between Jerusalem and Tehran can hold while Trump tells reporters an Iran deal is days away.

What stopped

Iran's military said it had delivered a "painful response" and would halt strikes barring further Israeli attacks in Lebanon, according to Iranian state media. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his first comments after Israel's retaliation against Iranian air defense systems and a petrochemical plant, said the fighting with Tehran had been contained. Trump told reporters he had spoken with Netanyahu and that both sides "agreed, through me, to stop," NBC News reported. Trump added that the Israeli leader "was hit, and he hit back, and I can't blame him for that."

Iranian state media said two members of an air defense unit were killed in the Israeli attacks. The exchange was the sharpest since an April 8 ceasefire halted the U.S.-Iran war that began Feb. 28.

What did not

Israel's military issued a fresh evacuation order Tuesday for all of Tyre, the fifth-largest city in Lebanon, including for the first time the Christian quarter where displaced Lebanese had been sheltering. The Israel Defense Forces said Hezbollah was present in the quarter without producing evidence. Lebanon's Health Ministry said the subsequent airstrikes killed at least eight and wounded 32, with rescuers still searching the rubble.

Monday's earlier raid on Tyre killed five and wounded eight, including four paramedics, near a Red Cross center, according to the same ministry. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Israel has carried out nearly 3,500 air attacks, 407 demolitions and six "razing" operations in Lebanon since the April 16 Israel-Lebanon ceasefire. The Health Ministry put the cumulative toll from the Israeli offensive at 3,666 dead and 11,321 wounded since March 2.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces would keep fighting Hezbollah and would strike Beirut's southern suburbs in response to any attacks on northern Israel, Al Jazeera reported.

The 'final throes'

"We're in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal," Trump told reporters early Tuesday, predicting an agreement could be signed in two or three days and that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen "immediately upon signing." He said the U.S. naval blockade had "turned out to be much stronger than bombing" in pushing Tehran toward terms. Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, said Washington and Tehran are exchanging views through Pakistan as an intermediary.

Vice President JD Vance, a veteran of the Iraq war, said Monday he was "confident" the conflict, now in its 102nd day, would not become a "quagmire." Vance told USA Today that "if this diplomacy ultimately falls apart, then the president has further tools at his disposal."

The counterparty

Iran has tied any agreement with Washington to a halt in Lebanon, a condition Israel's continued bombing of Tyre directly cuts against. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the United States was "directly responsible" for the escalation because it is party to the ceasefire talks, Al Jazeera reported. Tehran's halt announcement carried a warning that continued aggression, including in southern Lebanon, would draw "far more severe and crushing measures than before." Trump, according to Axios as cited by Al Jazeera, told Netanyahu: "You better be careful or you will be on your own very soon." Netanyahu replied that Israel has "a full right to self-defence, and we are exercising it as required."

Trump said he expects to know within days whether the agreement holds. Israel's next strike on Lebanon will test it first.