Donald Trump went on a furious diatrive against his Nato allies. But now a former representative of the alliance has hit back.

Donald Trump has gone on a furious diatribe against NATO nations as well as other allies including Australia after most baulked at the prospect of going all in on a US plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Allies, hit by tariffs and threats from the White House, have smarted at not being consulted about Mr Trump’s actions in Iran but now being asked to send support.

“We no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea,” the US president said on social media.

In further comments from the White House, he added that nations had been “foolish” to question his request.

But a former Nato representative hit back, saying the president had “completely misuderstood” the point of the alliance.

Elsewhere, the first resignation has occurred in the White House in the wake of the Iran war.

A senior official, and supporter of Donald Trump‘s “America First” doctrine, has said Iran posed “no imminent threat”.

Trump has ‘completely misunderstood’ Nato

A former British Nato representative has hit back at Donald Trump’s claim that America’s allies made a “foolish mistake” by not agreeing to help the US clear the Strait of Hormuz.

Most of Nato’s members have declined to help Trump by sending ships into the warzone, with the key shipping route closed by Iran.

Lord Peter Ricketts, a former permanent representative to Nato and ex-chair of the UK’s National Security Council, told the BBC that Trump has ‘completely misunderstood Nato’ and made clear that the bloc is a defensive alliance.

“[It is] a war of US choosing. We were not consulted on it. And it was never part of the Nato deal that allies had to follow America into any war that it chose to undertake,” he told Radio 5 Live.

Read on for more updates.

Two dead in central Israel after missile barrage

An Iranian missile barrage has killed two people near Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv, with the national railway company announcing shrapnel impact disrupted train services.

Authorities reported that falling munitions had hit multiple sites in central Israel in the overnight barrage that triggered air raid sirens across the area, after another day of heavy Israeli bombardments in Iran and Lebanon.

The latest deaths took the toll from missile attacks on Israel since the start of the Middle East war late last month to 14 people.

Police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said that, according to an initial assessment of the deadly impact, a residential building was hit by a cluster bomb in Ramat Gan, a city just outside Tel Aviv.

Cluster munitions, which Iran and Israel have previously accused each other of using, explode in mid-air and scatter bomblets across a wide area.

The munition “collapsed the roof in on an elderly couple that were in their room. Unfortunately, this couple did not go to the safe room when the alarm sounded, and as a result, we have this unfortunate tragedy,” Elsdunne said.

Omer, a resident of the area who only gave his first name, said “we heard like a streak of booms… it was not just one, it was a splitting missile”.

Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency medical service said two people were found dead at the scene.

“We saw smoke rising from a building with extensive damage and shattered glass,” said a statement from the medics.

In Bnei Brak, another city in the Tel Aviv area, a man was lightly injured by shrapnel, the medical service said.