Years of simmering tensions between Israel and Iran have broken into direct conflict, as the two arch foes trade missile attacks on an unprecedented scale.
Israel launched “Operation Rising Lion” earlier this month in response to intelligence it claimed showed that Iran was “approaching the point of no return” in the development of a nuclear weapon.
Calling the series of strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, missile strikes and military commanders “a decisive moment in Israel’s history”, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the operation would continue for as long as necessary.
Iran has labelled the attacks a declaration of war, and has responded with its own missile salvoes, with the civilian populations of both nations bearing the brunt of the conflict.
As of Thursday morning, a Washington-based human rights group estimated at least 639 Iranians have been killed by Israeli strikes, while at least 24 have been killed in Israel, according to authorities. Iran’s latest official death toll was 224 on Monday, a figure they have not updated since.
The US has now become directly involved, after President Donald Trump authorised a strike on three nuclear sites, sparking further fears of an ever-widening conflict.
Here The Independent looks at the background to the conflict and how the attacks have unfolded:
Israel and Iran have been engaged in shadow warfare for decades, with a long history of clandestine attacks by land, sea, air and cyberspace, which Tehran has conducted via its various proxies and allies in the region.
The two nations had been allies prior to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, which installed a new theocratic regime ideologically opposed to Israel’s existence. Israel would also come to view Tehran’s nuclear ambitions as an existential threat.
When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, Iran’s new regime helped to establish Hezbollah by lending the militant group funds and training. Tehran also funds Hamas in Gaza, Yemen’s Houthis, and other paramilitary groups in Iraq and Syria, according to the US State Department.
But after Hamas sparked the ongoing war in Gaza on 7 October 2023, Israel has killed much of the group’s senior leadership, while also decimating Hezbollah and striking Houthi targets over the same period, leaving Tehran significantly more isolated.
In a major escalation, Israel announced around 200 Israeli Air Force aircraft dropped 330 munitions on around 100 targets in total overnight, hitting six cities including Tehran and Iran’s nuclear facility in Natanz.
At least 20 senior commanders were killed, two regional sources told Reuters, including the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, and senior leaders in the Revolutionary Guards.
Mossad operatives situated deep within Iranian territory also conducted a series of covert sabotage missions targeting the country’s air defence systems, which included building a drone base near Tehran, a security source told the Times of Israel.
