TENSIONS have been growing between arch-rivals Israel and Iran since the start of the war in Gaza, following the unprecedented attack on Israel launched by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Here is a roundup of key dates leading up to Iran’s barrage of missiles against Israel on Tuesday:
Hamas attack
On October 8, 2023, a day after militants from Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attack Israel, late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi says Iran supports the Palestinians’ “legitimate defence”.
He accuses Israel of “endangering the security of nations in the region”.
In central Tehran, banners are raised showing solidarity with the Palestinians.
On October 28, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirms that 90 percent of Hamas’s military budget comes from Iran.
“It funds, it organises, it directs it.”
Death of top commander
On December 25, Iran blames Israel for an attack in Syria that kills Razi Moussavi, a senior officer in the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Weeks later in January 2024, a strike in Damascus blamed on Israel kills five Revolutionary Guards members.
Iranian media later report that the victims included the group’s intelligence chief for Syria and his deputy.
Raisi threatens to retaliate.
Attack on Iranian embassy
On April 1, an air strike blamed on Israel against Iran’s diplomatic mission in Damascus levels the embassy’s consular annex.
It kills seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.
Iran and Syria accuse Israel, which neither confirms nor denies it.
The Israeli army then states that the casualties of the strike were “terrorists” fighting Israel.
Iran hits back
Nearly two weeks later on April 13, Iran sends a wave of missiles and drones at Israel.
The attack is Tehran’s first-ever direct assault on Israeli territory since the establishment of its Islamic Republic in 1979.
Israel and other nations including the US intercept most of the projectiles. Israel vows to retaliate.
On April 19, explosions are reported in central Iran, as US media quote officials saying Israel has carried out revenge strikes against its arch-rival. Iran plays down the impact of the blasts and does not directly accuse Israel, which does not claim responsibility.
Hamas leader killed in Tehran
On July 31, Hamas says its political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an overnight strike in Iran.
Iranian media say he was killed by “an air-launched missile”.
He was attending the swearing-in of the new President Masoud Pezeshkian. Hamas, which with Iran and Hezbollah blames Israel, vows the act “will not go unanswered”.
Israel declines to comment on the strike, which came after it struck a Hezbollah stronghold in south Beirut, killing a senior commander of the Lebanese militant group, Fuad Shukr.
On August 3, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say that Israel killed Haniyeh using a “short-range projectile” launched from outside of his accommodation in Tehran.
Hezbollah leader killed
Amid a mounting series of bombardments against Hezbollah, on September 27 an Israeli strike on its south Beirut stronghold kills the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah alongside an Iranian general in the Revolutionary Guards.
Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vows that Nasrallah’s death “will not be in vain”.
Iran strike on Israel
On October 1, Iran launches a barrage of missiles at Israel in what the Revolutionary Guards say is a response to the killings of Nasrallah and Haniyeh.
The attack comes the day after Israel announced limited ground operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari says the Iranian attack “will have consequences. We have plans, and we will operate at the place and time we decide.”