Timeline: The key moments that led to Israel’s attacks on Iran

Fears of a regional war have heightened after Israel attacked Iran with a wave of missiles on Saturday morning, claiming it had struck military sites.

Iran has yet to confirm, although officials in Tehran said air defence systems had intercepted several incoming missiles.

The Israeli strikes were expected in response to missiles launched at Israel by Iran on October 2.

Here’s a timeline of key moments that have led to this latest escalation in the conflict between Israel and its regional neighbours:

October 8, 2023 – Hezbollah and Israel start exchanging fire

Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, began exchanging fire across the Lebanon-Israel border one day after the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel, in which 1,139 people were killed and more than 200 taken captive, and Israel launched its retaliation on the besieged Gaza Strip which has continued for nearly a year.

The war on Gaza has so far killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children.

On October 8, Hezbollah said it launched guided rockets and artillery at three military posts in Shebaa Farms, a border region, “in solidarity” with Palestinians.

Shebaa Farms, which is claimed by Lebanon, was seized by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.

The Israeli military said it fired artillery back into an area of Lebanon from where cross-border mortar fire had been launched.

Cross-border fire has continued on a near-daily basis ever since. Hezbollah, formed in 1982 to fight Israel’s invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon, says it will stop attacking Israel once the Israeli assault on Gaza stops.

From October 7, 2023, until September 6, 2024, of the 7,845 attacks exchanged between the two forces, about 82 percent have been carried out by Israeli forces, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED). At least 646 people in Lebanon were killed in that period in Israeli attacks.

Hezbollah and other armed groups were responsible for 1,768 attacks that killed at least 32 Israelis.

April 1, 2024 – Israel strikes the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria

Iran’s consulate in Damascus was destroyed in an Israeli missile attack which resulted in the killing of 13 people including top IRGC commander Major General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy.

Israel has long targeted Iran’s military installations in Syria but this attack marked the first time it had targeted the diplomatic compound itself. Iran pledged to respond.

April 13, 2024 – Iran launches 300 missiles, drones towards Israel

Nearly two weeks after the deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria, Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones targeting Israel.

This was the first time that Iran had fired missiles directly into Israeli territory.

However, the majority of the projectiles were intercepted outside the country’s borders with the assistance of the United States, the United Kingdom and France, according to the Israeli army. Jordan also helped to shoot down some missiles that were crossing through its airspace.

A seven-year-old girl in Israel was severely injured by missile fragments from the attack, while others sustained minor injuries. Iran’s aerial attack lasted five hours, according to US officials.

July 31, 2024 – Assassination of Ismail Haniyeh

Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran’s capital, Tehran, in the early hours of Wednesday, July 31, when an air strike hit the building in which he was staying. Hamas and Iran blamed Israel for the assassination, which occurred just hours after Israel targeted a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut.

Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian the day before.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said Haniyeh’s killing had taken the war with Israel to a “new level” and warned of “enormous consequences for the entire region”.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promised “harsh punishment”.

September 23-27, 2024 – Israel kills more than 700 people in Lebanon

On September 23, Israel launched more than 650 air strikes on Lebanon – claiming it hit 1,600 Hezbollah targets – from Bint Jbeil in the south to Baalbek in the Bekaa. By September 27, Israel killed more than 700 people across Lebanon, including 50 children and 94 women.

On September 24, Hezbollah launched a drone attack at Israel’s Atlit naval base south of Haifa.

On September 27, Israel killed Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, by hitting a residential block with 85 “bunker buster” bombs. Using such bombs on populated areas is banned by the Geneva Convention.

At least 1,835 Lebanese people were wounded.

Israel’s attacks continued, displacing at least one million people in Lebanon, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Ninety percent of the displacements occurred in the week leading up to October 1, with many people forced to sleep on streets, beaches, parks or in cars.

October 2 – Iranian missiles strike Israel

Iran said it fired approximately 180 ballistic missiles in response to Israeli assassinations of top Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) leaders.

It claimed it had used a hypersonic missile against Israel for the first time – a claim Al Jazeera could not independently verify.

Israeli officials warned of retaliation.

US President Joe Biden said he would not support Israel striking Iran’s nuclear sites or oil facilities.

The remaining, significant strategic option for Israel to target? Military sites, which is what Israel claims it struck on October 26.

How has the conflict escalated to this level?

“Washington and its proxies are protecting Israel from any accountability while making sure Netanyahu can continue to commit genocide in Gaza and colonial violence throughout the region and confront anyone who attempts to intervene,” Denijal Jegic, assistant professor at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, told Al Jazeera.

The international community has miserably failed to intervene in the genocide in Gaza, particularly due to US hegemony and the power imbalance in UN institutions, he added.

“The Israeli regime has made it clear that it does not have any red lines … [it] has continued to escalate because it can,” Jegic said.