Iran and Israel are longtime enemies, with the latter in strong opposition to Tehran’s developing nuclear programme.
Iran has backed, funded and trained several proxy groups across the Middle East region to varying degrees, including Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and a number of other factions based in Syria and Iraq.
Israel accuses Iran of backing militant attacks against it, while Iran says Israel has carried out a number of killings of Iranian officials and scientists – which Israel has not commented on.
Here’s how tensions between the countries have boiled over in the past year…
April 2024
On 1 April, the Israelis conducted an airstrike in Damascus, Syria, targeting two generals and seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The strike flattened the Iranian consulate in the city, which led to condemnation as diplomatic site are usually off-limits.
Two weeks later, in response, more than 170 explosive drones and 120 ballistic missiles were launched by Iran, with “only a few” entering Israel and “99%” intercepted by its defence system, according to the IDF.
Some 30 cruise missiles were launched, 25 of which were intercepted outside Israel’s borders, the military said. Dozens of rockets were also said to have been launched from Lebanon.
There were no reported fatalities, but a seven-year-old girl “was severely injured by shrapnel”.
July 2024
Israeli strikes killed a top Hezbollah commander in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, in retaliation for a rocket attack that killed at least 12 people.
A day later, Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an explosion in Tehran – an attack blamed on but never claimed by Israel.
Iran vowed to retaliate again, but the response took months to play out.
October 2024
On 30 September, Israel began a ground operation into Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah fighters and infrastructure, having assassinated its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah, a proxy of Iran, had been launching missiles at Israel since the day after the 7 October Hamas attacks.
In response to the ground incursion and July attacks, Iran launched a barrage of nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, and some damage was caused.
Israel vowed the attack would have consequences, with Israeli PM Netanyahu saying: “Iran made a major mistake – and it will pay for it.”
It then retaliated with strikes on missile facilities in three Iranian provinces on 26 October.
You can hear explosions in Iran during that attack below…
What’s brought us here?
There have been no major attacks since October, but developments around Iran’s nuclear programme have ratcheted up tensions.
In May, the United Nations watchdog said Iran had increased its stockpile of uranium to near weapons-grade levels and carried out secret nuclear activities.
It warned it was “the only non-nuclear-weapon state to produce such material” and it had enough to make “several” nuclear bombs, if it chose to do so.
Iran said the report was “politically motivated and repeated baseless accusations”, while Israel said the report showed Iran’s nuclear plan was not peaceful.
Netanyahu urged the international community to “act now” to stop Tehran. Then yesterday, the UN watchdog said Iran was not complying with its nuclear obligations for the first time in almost 20 years.
