Timeline: A recent history of the Israel-Iran conflict

The conflict between Iran and Israel has escalated yet again.

On the morning of June 13, explosions rocked Tehran as Israel carried out

a major attack intended to cripple the country’s nuclear programme

, Israeli officials said.

The strikes raised fears the long-simmering conflict between the two countries could escalate into a war involving the most powerful militaries in the Middle East.

Iran’s rulers have pledged to destroy Israel and have long supported regional militias who share that goal. Israel views Iran as an existential threat and has vowed to prevent it from building a nuclear bomb.

In the past year, Israel and Iran have traded air strikes as their once covert war has burst into the open.

Here is a recent history of the conflict:

2019

Strikes against Iran’s allies

Israel carried out a series of attacks in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq to prevent Iran from equipping its allies with sophisticated weapons. Israel accused Iran of trying to establish an arms supply line through Iraq and northern Syria into Lebanon, where Iran had long backed the militant group Hezbollah.

Israel also attacked ships carrying Iranian oil and weapons through the eastern Mediterranean and Red seas.

2020

A remote-controlled assassination

In November, Israel killed Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Dr Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, with a remote-controlled machine gun.

2021

Skirmishes at sea

Iran and Israel increasingly began attacking each other at sea.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of being behind a February explosion on an Israeli-owned ship transporting vehicles sailing off the coast of Oman. Iran accused Israel in March of targeting an Iranian cargo ship about 50 miles off the coast of Israel. In April, an Iranian military vessel stationed in the Red Sea was damaged by an apparent Israeli mine attack. Such operations continued through the year.

2022

Assassination of an Iranian officer

In May, two assassins on motorcycles shot and killed

Colonel Sayad Khodayee

, an officer in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Israeli officials said he helped command a covert operations unit that conducted assassinations and abductions. Israel confirmed its role in the killing to the US.

Two scientists die

Dr Ayoub Entezari, an aeronautical engineer at a military research facility, and Mr Kamran Aghamolaei, a geologist, died in May after developing symptoms of food poisoning. Iran said Israel poisoned them, but Israel declined to comment.

2023

The Oct 7, 2023, attacks

Palestinian militants led by Hamas, which is backed by Iran, attacked Israel,

igniting a deadly war in the Gaza Strip

. In solidarity with Hamas, other Iranian-backed militias in the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, also attacked Israel.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, denied that Iran had any role in the Oct 7 attacks. But Hamas leaders spoke broadly about receiving support from regional allies, and documents show the group discussed its plans with Iran.

An air strike in Syria

In December, Iran accused Israel of killing a high-level Iranian officer in a missile strike in Syria.

2024

A strike on Damascus, and several rounds of retaliation

In April, an Israeli airstrike on

an Iranian Embassy building

in Damascus killed three top Iranian commanders and four officers. Weeks later, Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel, nearly all of which were shot down. Soon after, Israel attacked an anti-aircraft system in Iran that protects a nuclear facility.

An assassination in Tehran

In July, Ismail Haniyeh,

Hamas’ political leader

, was assassinated in an explosion in a guesthouse in Tehran run by the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Israel later confirmed that it was behind the killing.

A pager attack

In September, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mr Mojtaba Amini, lost an eye in

a massive simultaneous pager attack

targeting Hezbollah members. Similar attacks on electronic devices followed in subsequent days, killing dozens of people and injuring thousands. Israel later confirmed it conducted the attacks.

Hezbollah leader killed

In September, Israel killed Hezbollah’s leader,

Hassan Nasrallah

, in airstrikes near Beirut, Lebanon’s capital.

Iran fires at Israel

Iran in October

fired about 180 ballistic missiles at Israel

, in retaliation for Israel’s assassinations of Nasrallah, Haniyeh and an Iranian commander. Most were intercepted.

Israel targets Iran’s air defences

Israel launched airstrikes on Iran in late October that destroyed air-defence systems intended to protect critical infrastructure.

The air strikes in April and October took out air defence systems that Iran purchased from Russia, Iranian and Israeli officials said, including one in central Iran that is critical to the country’s nuclear programme.

2025

Mr Netanyahu proposed to US President Donald Trump a plan to strike Iranian nuclear sites, which Trump administration members debated for months. In April, Mr Trump decided to pursue diplomacy instead.

Recently, Iran rejected the administration’s demand to stop all uranium enrichment, but talks about its nuclear program are set to continue.

On June 12, Mr Trump said there was a risk that Israel could strike Iran, torpedoing the talks. “I think it would blow it,” he said. “Might help it, actually, but it could also blow it.” NYTIMES