Israel launched an attack on Iranian territory on Friday, sources said, in the latest tit-for-tat exchange between regional foes whose long-running shadow war has spilled into the open.

After Iran fired drones and missiles at Israel on April 13, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel would respond. Tehran’s action was its first attack on Israel and was in retaliation for a suspected Israeli airstrike on the compound of Tehran’s embassy in Damascus. April 1st.

The exchanges are part of a broader escalation since the war in Gaza began last year, but hostility between the two countries stretches back decades through a history of shadow warfare and covert attacks on land, sea, air and cyberspace.

1979 – Iran’s pro-Western leader Mohammad Reza Shah, who considered Israel an ally, was ousted in an Islamic revolution that established a new theocratic regime and made opposition to Israel an ideological imperative.

1982 – When Israel invaded Lebanon, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards teamed up with fellow Shiite Muslims there to establish Hezbollah. Israel will ultimately view the armed group as its most dangerous adversary on its borders.

1983 – Iran-backed Hezbollah uses suicide bombings to drive Western and Israeli forces out of Lebanon. In November, a car packed with explosives drove into the Israeli military headquarters. Israel later withdrew its troops from most of Lebanon.

1992-94 – Argentina and Israel accuse Iran and Hezbollah of being behind the 1992 suicide bombings of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the city’s Jewish center in 1994, each of which killed dozens of people.

Iran and Hezbollah deny responsibility.

year 2002 – News that Iran has a secret uranium enrichment program has raised concerns it is trying to build a nuclear weapon, which it denies. Israel urges tough action against Tehran.

year 2006 – Israel has been fighting a month-long war with Hezbollah in Lebanon but has been unable to suppress the heavily armed group.

Year 2009 – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Israel a “dangerous and deadly cancer” in a speech.

year 2010 – Stuxnet is a malicious computer virus widely believed to have been developed by the United States and Israel that was used to attack uranium enrichment facilities at Iran’s Natanz nuclear complex. This is the first publicized cyberattack targeting industrial machinery.

2012 – Iranian nuclear scientist Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed in Tehran by a bomb planted in his car by a motorcyclist. A city official blamed Israel for the attack.

2018 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers after years of lobbying against the deal, calling Trump’s decision a “historic move.”

In May, Israel said it attacked Iranian military infrastructure in Syria after Iranian forces fired rockets into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights – a civil war in which Tehran supports President Bashar al-Assad.

2020 – Israel welcomed the assassination of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard overseas forces, in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad. Iran retaliated by launching missile attacks on Iraqi bases housing US troops. About 100 US military personnel were injured.

2021 – Iran accuses Israel of assassinating Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who Western intelligence services believe was the mastermind of Iran’s secret plan to develop nuclear weapons capabilities. Tehran has long denied any such ambitions.

2022 – U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed a joint pledge to refuse to provide Iran with nuclear weapons, in a show of unity among allies who have long been at odds with Tehran over diplomacy.

The pledge was part of Biden’s “Jerusalem Declaration” during his first trip to Israel as president, a day after he told a local TV station that he was open to using “last resort” against Iran, in an apparent effort to accommodate calls from world powers. “credible military threat”.

2024 – A suspected Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers, including two senior commanders. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

On April 13, Iran responded with an unprecedented direct attack on Israeli territory with a series of drones and missiles. This prompted Israel to launch an attack on Iranian territory on April 19, people familiar with the matter said.

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