Israel-Iran battle: A timeline of how the assaults unfolded | EUROtoday

Years of simmering tensions between Israel and Iran have damaged into direct battle, as the 2 arch foes commerce missile assaults on an unprecedented scale.

Israel stated on Friday it had launched “Operation Rising Lion” in response to intelligence it claimed confirmed that Iran was “approaching the point of no return” within the growth of a nuclear weapon.

Calling the sequence of strikes on Iranian nuclear services, missile strikes and army commanders “a decisive moment in Israel’s history”, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the operation would proceed for so long as mandatory.

Iran has labelled the assaults a declaration of struggle, and has responded with its personal missile salvoes in current days, with the civilian populations of each nations bearing the brunt of the battle.

As of Monday morning, authorities stated no less than 224 Iranians have been killed up to now within the assaults, whereas no less than 24 folks have been killed in Israel.

Here The Independent seems on the background to the battle and the way the assaults have unfolded:

What is the historical past of the Israel-Iran battle?

Israel and Iran have been engaged in shadow warfare for many years, with an extended historical past of clandestine assaults by land, sea, air and our on-line world, which Tehran has performed by way of its varied proxies and allies within the area.

The two nations had been allies previous to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, which put in a brand new theocratic regime ideologically against Israel’s existence. Israel would additionally come to view Tehran’s nuclear ambitions as an existential risk.

When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, Iran’s new regime helped to ascertain Hezbollah by lending the militant group funds and coaching. Tehran additionally funds Hamas in Gaza, Yemen’s Houthis, and different paramilitary teams in Iraq and Syria, in keeping with the US State Department.

But after Hamas sparked the continued struggle in Gaza on 7 October 2023, Israel has killed a lot of the group’s senior management, whereas additionally decimating Hezbollah and putting Houthi targets over the identical interval, leaving Tehran considerably extra remoted.

Friday, 13 June

In a significant escalation, Israel introduced on Friday morning that round 200 Israeli Air Force plane dropped 330 munitions on round 100 targets in whole in a single day, hitting six cities together with Tehran and Iran’s nuclear facility in Natanz.

At least 20 senior commanders have been killed, two regional sources instructed Reuterstogether with the chief of employees of Iran’s armed forces, and senior leaders within the Revolutionary Guards.

Mossad operatives located deep inside Iranian territory additionally performed a sequence of covert sabotage missions concentrating on the nation’s air defence techniques, which included constructing a drone base close to Tehran, a safety supply instructed the Times of Israel.

Further Israeli strikes have been reported on Friday, together with on Iran’s army airport in Tabriz and the Shiite holy metropolis of Qom.

Iran’s envoy to the UN stated 78 folks have been killed and greater than 320 injured – most of them civilians.

Iran responded by firing round 100 drones in direction of Israel. Jordan’s army stated it had intercepted a lot of missiles and drones that entered its airspace and which had been prone to fall in Jordanian territory, together with populated areas.

A later salvo of Iranian missiles lit up the sky over Tel Aviv on Friday night. Israel stated fewer than 100 missiles have been launched, and stated most have been intercepted or failed to achieve their targets.

Saturday, 14 June

Attacks continued on Saturday, with Israel warning that three folks had died and greater than 50 left injured throughout a number of cities.

Warning Israel’s allies to not shoot down missiles on its behalf, Iran additionally advised the battle would unfold to US bases within the area.

State information company Fars stated two projectiles had hit Tehran’s Mehrabad airport. Israeli strikes have been additionally reported in round 10 areas within the East Azerbaijan province. Authorities would later report that 60 folks had been killed when a 14-storey condo block was flattened in Tehran.

Overnight on Saturday, Israel focused Iran’s defence ministry headquarters in Tehran, whereas footage confirmed a blaze raging on the close by Shahran oil depot.

Around one million folks have been pressured into air raid shelters as sirens have been heard in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Nearly 200 have been wounded and 6 killed in a strike on an eight-storey constructing in Bat Yam, a metropolis south of Tel Aviv, officers stated. Four civilians have been additionally reported lifeless within the predominantly Palestinian city of Tamra.

Sunday, 15 June

As the battle entered its third day, explosions rocked Tel Aviv on Sunday afternoon, earlier than a second wave of Iranian strikes hit the port metropolis of Haifa, with the coastal metropolis of Bat Yam additionally attacked.

The Houthis introduced that that they had focused the central Israeli metropolis of Jaffa with ballistic missiles prior to now 24 hours, marking the primary time an ally of Iran had joined the fray, with Hezbollah having indicated on Friday they didn’t plan to assault Israel.

Israel, in the meantime, prolonged its targets past army installations to additionally hit oil refineries and authorities buildings.

A spherical of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the US, deliberate for Sunday, was scrapped after Tehran stated it could not negotiate whereas beneath Israeli assault.

Monday, 16 June

Iranian missiles struck Tel Aviv and the port metropolis of Haifa shortly earlier than daybreak on Monday, killing no less than eight folks and wounding greater than 100 others, whereas destroying properties and inflicting injury to the US Embassy.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed the newest assault employed a brand new methodology that triggered Israel’s multi-layered defence techniques to focus on one another and allowed Tehran to efficiently hit many targets, with out offering additional particulars.

But Israel insisted simply seven out of fewer than 100 missiles fired by Iran in a single day had landed in Israel. Israel’s army additionally claimed to have achieved aerial superiority over Iran and to have destroyed greater than a 3rd of Iran’s surface-to-surface missile launchers.

Iran additionally introduced that dozens of alleged saboteurs and “spies” linked to Israel had been arrested for the reason that begin of the battle.

With no signal of an finish to the preventing, the danger of additional escalation loomed over a gathering of G7 leaders in Canada. Sir Keir Starmer stated the summit would offer a chance for allies to make the case for de-escalation within the “fast-moving” state of affairs within the Middle East.

Tuesday, 17 June

Israel’s army stated on Tuesday that it killed Iran’s wartime chief of employees Ali Shadmani simply 4 days after he was appointed.

The IDF carried out intensive strikes on Iranian army targets together with weapons storage websites and missile launchers.

Separately, three folks have been killed and 4 injured in Iran’s central metropolis of Kashan in an Israeli assault, Iran’s Nournews reported.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards stated that they had hit Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate and spy company Mossad’s operational centre. Israel didn’t touch upon the assaults.

Israel stated that Iran had fired 30 missiles on the nation early on Tuesday morning.

Why has Israel attacked now?

Having lengthy harboured ambitions to dismantle Iran’s nuclear capabilities, Israel claimed on Friday that new intelligence confirmed Iran was “approaching the point of no return” in growing a nuclear weapon.

But a supply aware of US intelligence studies stated there had been no current change in Washington’s evaluation that Iran was not constructing a nuclear weapon and that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had not authorised a resumption of the weapons programme shut in 2003.

It got here after the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, declared Iran to be in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the primary time in practically twenty years, having warned that Tehran had sufficient uranium enriched to near-weapons grade to make 9 nuclear bombs.

While Iran insists its nuclear programme is meant merely for power functions, Tehran’s management has repeatedly referred to as Israel a “cancer” within the Middle East.

Tensions between the 2 foes additionally broke into direct battle final 12 months, with Iran firing tons of of missiles and drones in its first ever direct assault on Israel in April 2024, in retaliation for an assault on its embassy compound in Damascus, which killed a number of senior Iranian army commanders.

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