Iran and Israel's decades-long shadow war

A timeline of the simmering tension that exploded overnight

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  Rescuers work at the scene after an Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran. AP

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  Smoke rises after an Israeli strike in Iran's western province of Kermanshah. AFP

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  A protester carries a poster of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Maj Gen Hossein Salami, who was killed in Israeli strikes, at a demonstration in Tehran's Enqelab Square. Getty Images

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  Firefighters and volunteers clean up the scene of an explosion at a residential compound, after Israeli attacks in Tehran. AP

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  A building that caught fire in the Israeli strikes on the Iranian capital. AFP

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  A wounded man in the aftermath of the Israeli strikes. Reuters

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  Iran's Revolutionary Guards leader Hossein Salami, shown here in 2023, was killed in the strikes, local media reported. AFP

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  A building damaged by the Israeli attacks in the north of Tehran. AP

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  Firefighters put out a blaze at a building hit by the Israeli strikes, in Tehran. Reuters

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  Smoke from the strikes covers the Iranian capital. AFP

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  Iranians chant slogans as they attend Friday prayers at Tehran University campus. AP

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  Firefighters outside a building that was hit by an Israeli strike in Tehran. AFP

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  Firefighters, rescue workers and security personnel in central Tehran. EPA

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  People look at a damaged building in Tehran. Reuters

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  First responders in Tehran. AFP

Israel carried out strikes across Iran just two days ahead of scheduled talks between Tehran and Washington in Oman. Israel had repeatedly warned it would launch attacks if negotiations were to collapse.

This marks the latest escalation between the two counties as fears of an all-out war rise. Iran and Israel have been sworn enemies for decades and have engaged in clandestine operations and cyber attacks. But, since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023 the states have also engaged in open warfare.

1979: Iran's pro-Western leader, Mohammad Reza Shah, who regarded Israel as an ally, is swept from power in a revolution that sees the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

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Muhammad Reza Pahlevi, exiled Shah of Iran, with his wife Farah Diva on their first outing from his heavily guarded villa in Cuernavaca, Mexico, in June 1979. Getty Images

1982: Israel invades Lebanon and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps work with fellow Shiite Muslims to set up Hezbollah. The group will become one of Israel's most dangerous adversaries.

1983: Iran-backed Hezbollah uses suicide bombings to expel Western and Israeli forces from Lebanon. In November, a car packed with explosives drives into the Lebanon headquarters of Israel's military. Israel later withdraws from much of Lebanon.

1992-94: Argentina and Israel accuse Iran and Hezbollah of orchestrating suicide bombings at Israel's embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and a Jewish centre in the city in 1994, each of which killed dozens of people.

2006: Israel invades Lebanon but is unable to crush Hezbollah.

2009: In a speech, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calls Israel “a dangerous and fatal cancer”.

2010: Stuxnet, a malicious computer virus widely believed to have been developed by the US and Israel, is used to attack a uranium enrichment facility at Iran's Natanz nuclear site. It is the first publicly known cyber attack on industrial machinery.

2012: Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan is killed by a bomb placed on his car by a motorcyclist in Tehran. A city official blames Israel for the attack.

The car belonging to Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan at a blast site outside a university in Tehran in 2012. Reuters

2018: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hails President Donald Trump's withdrawal of the US from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, after years of lobbying against the agreement.

2020: Israel welcomes the assassination of General Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Quds Force, the overseas arm of the IRGC, in an American drone strike in Baghdad.

2021: Iran blames Israel for the 2020 assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, viewed by Western intelligence services as the mastermind of a covert Iranian programme to develop nuclear weapons capability.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points at an image of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in 2018. Reuters

2022: US president Joe Biden and Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid sign a joint pledge to deny Iran nuclear arms, in a show of unity by allies long divided over diplomacy with Tehran.

April, 2024: A suspected Israeli air strike on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus kills seven IRGC officers, including two senior commanders. Iran responds with a barrage of drones and missiles in an unprecedented direct attack on Israeli territory on April 13. This prompts Israel to launch an attack on Iranian soil on April 19.

July, 2024: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh killed in Tehran.

People gather around a truck carrying the coffins of Hamas late political leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard in August 2024. EPA

October, 2024: Iran fires more than 180 missiles at Israel in what it calls revenge for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on September 27 in an air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, and the killing of Haniyeh.

Israel strikes military sites in Iran later in the month, saying it was retaliating against Tehran's attacks. Iran reports “limited damage” to some locations.

June, 2025: Israel carries out strikes in Iran it says were aimed at disrupting its nuclear infrastructure.