Between 2010 and 2024, Israel allegedly conducted dozens of
operations – including targeted assassinations, drone strikes, and cyberattacks
– on Iran. The attacks increased in both range and sophistication. Many of the
targets were connected to Tehran’s controversial nuclear program, which Israel
has long considered an existential threat. In 2022, Israeli drones also
reportedly hit two facilities linked to Iran’s increasingly advanced drone
program. Following is a brief prepared by the United States Institute of Peace
Israel was blamed for the killing of five nuclear scientists,
including Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the father of Iran’s nuclear program, between
2010 and 2020. It also reportedly targeted military commanders responsible for
operations abroad, including three Revolutionary Guard generals visiting Syria
in April 2024
In July 2024, Iran accused Israel of assassinating Ismail
Haniyeh, the political chief of Hamas, during his visit to Tehran for the
inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. The following is a timeline of
attacks on Iran allegedly carried out by Israel since 2010.
Jan.
12, 2010: Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a physics professor at Tehran
University, was killed by a remote-controlled bomb planted on a
motorcycle. The device detonated as he left home in northern Tehran to go to
work. The government described Ali Mohammadi as a nuclear scientist but said he
did not work for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. State media blamed Israel
and the United States for the assassination.
June
2010: The Stuxnet computer virus, allegedly developed by Israel and the United States, was
detected in computers at the Bushehr nuclear power plant. The virus then spread
to other facilities. By September, 30,000 computers across at least 14 facilities—including the Natanz facility—were
reportedly infected. The virus caused the engines in IR-1 centrifuges
to increase their speed and eventually explode. At least 1,000 centrifuges of
the 9,000 installed at Natanz were destroyed, the Institute for Science and
International Security estimated. After conducting investigations, Iran blamed Israel and the United States for the
virus.
Nov.
29. 2010: Professor Majid Shariari, a member of the nuclear
engineering faculty at
Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, was killed in his car on his way to work.
His wife was wounded in the blast. Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic
Energy Organization of Iran, said that Shariari was involved in one of the
country’s biggest nuclear projects but did not elaborate.Accounts of the
assassination varied. A Western intelligence expert said that an explosive was planted on the vehicle
beforehand and detonated remotely. Iranian media reported that men on
motorbikes attached bombs to cars belonging to Shariari and
another scientist, Fereydoon Abbasi Davani, on the same day. Abbasi Davani,
an advisor to the Defense Ministry and a professor at
Imam Hossein University, and his wife were injured in a separate blast. Local
media described Abbasi Davani as one of Iran’s few specialists who could
separate isotopes, a key step in producing enriched uranium for nuclear energy
or to create fuel for a nuclear weapon. Abbasi Davani was sanctioned by
the United Nations in 2007 for involvement in nuclear or ballistic missile
research. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the United States and Israel for
the attacks.
April
2011: Iran’s cyber defense agency discovered a virus nicknamed “Stars” that was designed to infiltrate and damage its nuclear
facilities. The virus mimicked official government files and inflicted
“minor damage” on computer systems, according to Gholam Reza Jalali, the head
of Iran’s Passive Defense Organization. Iran blamed the United States and Israel.
July
23, 2011: Darioush Rezaeinejad, an electrical engineer working at a
national security research facility, was killed by two gunmen on a motorcycle in Tehran. State media
initially identified the man as Darious Rezaei, a physics professor. Hours
later, state media backtracked and said the victim was Darioush Rezaeinejad, an
electronics student. Deputy Interior Minister Safarali Baratloo claimed that he
was not involved in the nuclear program. But a foreign government official and
a former U.N. nuclear inspector alleged that Rezaeinejad was working on high-voltage
switches, parts necessary to start explosions needed to trigger a nuclear
warhead. Iran blamed the United States and Israel for the
assassination.
Nov.
13, 2011: Iran said it had contained Duqu, the third virus aimed
at disrupting Iran’s nuclear program. Duqu used programming code that was also used in the
2010 Stuxnet attack.
Jan.
11, 2012: Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemical engineering graduate,
was killed after two people on a motorbike placed a bomb
on his car in northern Tehran. Roshan and the driver died, and at least two
other people at the scene were reportedly injured.
Iran identified Ahmadi Roshan as a supervisor at the Natanz Uranium Enrichment
facility. It held Israel and the United States responsible for the killing.
“The bomb was a magnetic one and the same as the ones previously used for the
assassination of the scientists, and the work of the Zionists [Israelis],"
deputy Tehran governor Safarali Baratloo claimed.
April
2012: Iran discovered the
“Wiper” malware erasing the hard drives of computers owned by the oil ministry
and the National Iranian Oil Company. “Wiper” appeared to be similar in design
to Duqu and Stuxnet, thought to have been developed by Israel and the United
States. Iran blamed the United States and Israel for the attack.
May 9,
2012: Iran announced that a virus dubbed “Flame” had infected government computers and had tried to steal
government data. Israel and the United States had deployed the Flame virus to
collect intelligence and to prepare for a wider cyberwarfare campaign, The
Washington Post reported. In Israel, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon did
not confirm the nation’s involvement but acknowledged that Israel would use “all means... to
harm the Iranian nuclear system.”
Jan.
31, 2018: A Mossad team raided a warehouse in Tehran that housed a vast
archive of Iran’s nuclear program. The agents used torches to cut through 32
safes. The team smuggled some 50,000 pages and 163 compact discs out of the
country. On April 30, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that Israel obtained some 100,000 “secret
files that prove” Iran had earlier lied about not having a nuclear weapons
program. He also alleged that Tehran worked to “expand its nuclear weapons
know-how for future use” even after the 2015 nuclear accord. Netanyahu
presented maps, charts, photographs, and videos with details about Project Amad
to design, produce and test nuclear weapons. Western intelligence had claimed
for more than a decade that Iran had a covert nuclear weapons program.
Oct.
28, 2018: The head of Iran’s civil defense agency claimed that it had neutralized a “new generation” of
the Stuxnet virus attempting to damage communications infrastructure. Iranian
officials blamed Israel for the attack. “Thanks to our vigilant
technical teams, it failed,” Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari
Jahromi said.
May 9,
2020: A cyberattack hit computers that regulate maritime traffic at
Shahid Rajaee port on Iran's southern coast in the Persian Gulf. The
disruption created a traffic jam of ships that waited days to
dock. Iran acknowledged that it had been hit by a foreign hack. Israel was reportedly behind the cyberattack, although
it did not claim responsibility, according to The Washington Post.
July 2,
2020: An explosion caused extensive damage to Iran’s main nuclear
enrichment site at Natanz and set the program back months. The blast damaged a
factory producing advanced IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges that could enrich uranium
faster than the IR-1 centrifuges allowed under the 2015 nuclear deal. “It’s
possible that this incident will slow down the development and expansion of
advanced centrifuges,” said Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the AEOI. Israel
reportedly planted a bomb in the facility, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported.
Nov. 27,
2020: Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a prominent nuclear scientist, was
assassinated in a roadside attack about 40 miles east of Tehran. Western and
Israeli intelligence had long suspected that Fakhrizadeh was the father of
Iran’s covert nuclear weapons program. He was often compared to J. Robert
Oppenheimer, the father of the American atomic bomb. He kept a low profile for most of his career. His name
was not widely known even in Iran until he was sanctioned by the United Nations
in 2007 and the United States in 2008.
Details on the attack varied. Iran’s defense ministry
initially reported that several gunmen opened fire on Fakhrizadeh’s car, but
Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council,
later said that “electronic equipment” triggered by
remote control killed the scientist.
Iran blamed the killing on Israel. Foreign Minister Javad
Zarif condemned the killing as terrorism. “This cowardice—with serious
indications of Israeli role—shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators,”
he tweeted. On November 30, Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli
Cohen told local radio that he did not know who was behind
the raid. But a senior U.S. administration official told CNN that Israel was responsible.
April
11, 2021: An explosion at Natanz hit the power supply for
centrifuges and caused damage that could take up to nine months to fully
repair, The New York Times reported. Alireza Zakani, head of Parliament’s Research
Center, said that “thousands of centrifuges” were destroyed during the blackout. He claimed that 300 pounds of explosives had been
smuggled into the facility in equipment that had been sent abroad for repair.
Iran blamed Israel. “The Zionists want to take revenge
because of our progress in the way to lift sanctions,” Foreign Minister Mohammad
Javad Zarif said. “They have publicly said that they will not allow
this. But we will take our revenge from the Zionists.”
American and Israeli intelligence officials told The New York Times that Israel played
a role in the sabotage. Unnamed intelligence sources told Israeli media that the Mossad was
responsible for a cyberattack that caused the blackout.
July
9-10, 2021: Hackers caused chaos at train stations nationwide by posting fake
messages about cancellations on display boards. The messages urged passengers
to call 64411, the number for a hotline run by the Supreme Leader’s office. On
the next day, websites tied to the Ministry of Roads and Urbanization reportedly
went down. Iran blamed Israel and the United States.
An Israeli-American cybersecurity company, however, concluded that Indra, a group of hackers who identify
as opponents of Iran’s theocratic regime, was most likely responsible. The code
used in the attack resembled code in previous attacks claimed by
the group in 2019 and 2020.
June
23, 2021: An Israeli quadcopter drone, launched from inside Iran, struck a facility in Karaj
for manufacturing centrifuges for the nuclear program. Satellite photos
showed damage to the roof and suggested that a fire had
broken out. Iran later blamed Israel for the attack.
Oct.
26, 2021: A cyberattack knocked out the system that allows Iranians
to use government-issued cards to purchase fuel at a subsidized rate. The
outage impacted all 4,300 gas stations in Iran. Consumers
either had to pay the regular price, more than double the subsidized one, or
wait for stations to reconnect to the central distribution system. By October
30, some 3,200 out of 4,300 stations had been reconnected to
the system. Iran blamed Israel and the United States.
Feb.
14, 2022: Six Israeli quadcopter drones reportedly destroyed hundreds of drones at a base near Kermanshah in western Iran. The base was
Iran’s primary manufacturing and storage facility for military drones. Lebanese television
station Al Mayadeen, which is linked to Hezbollah and Iran, claimed that the
drones were launched from Iraqi Kurdistan. Iran blamed Israel for the
attack.
April
30, 2022: The Israeli press reported that Mossad agents in Iran had earlier
kidnapped and interrogated Mansour Rasouli, an agent of the IRGC Qods Force. In a
confession aired on Israeli television, Rasouli admitted that he
had been directed by the Qods Force to assassinate an Israeli diplomat in
Turkey, an American general in Germany, and a Jewish journalist in France. He
was reportedly released in Iran after the interrogation. On May 8, Iran
International, a London-based television station, broadcast video footage of Rasouli claiming to have
been tortured into providing a false confession.
May 22,
2022: IRGC Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei was shot five times outside of his home in Tehran. Two
gunmen on motorcycles reportedly opened fire while he sat in his Kia Pride.
Khodaei’s role in the IRGC has been disputed. Israeli officials alleged that Khodaei was the deputy commander of Unit
840, an IRGC unit reportedly tasked with kidnapping and assassinating
foreigners, including Israeli officials and civilians. Others claimed that
Khodaei advised Iran-backed fighters in Syria and coordinated shipments of
drone and missile technology to Syria and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Majid Mirahmadi,
a member of the Supreme National Security Council, alleged the assassination
was “definitely the work of Israel.”
May 25,
2022: Quadcopter suicide drones, laden with explosives and
reportedly launched from inside Iran, hit the Parchin military complex 37 miles
southeast of Tehran. The drones damaged a building where drones had been
developed by the Ministry of Defense. One engineer was killed and another
person was injured. IRGC Commander Hossein Salami pledged retaliation against unspecified “enemies”; the
attack was similar to others in Iran and Lebanon attributed to Israel.
May 31
and June 2, 2022: In separate incidents, two scientists – one in
Yazd and one in Tehran – reportedly died from poison in their food. Initial
reports claimed Ayoub Entezari, an aerospace engineer, worked on missiles and
airplane turbines for a military research center in Yazd. Officials later
claimed that Entezari worked for a civilian industrial company. Kamran
Aghamolaei, a geologist in Tehran, died on June 2. Iranian officials blamed
Israel for their deaths, according to The New York Times.
Jan.
28, 2023: Suicide drones equipped with explosives struck a military
facility in central Isfahan just before midnight. Israel’s Mossad intelligence
organization was reportedly responsible, senior intelligence officials
told The
New York Times. The site was an advanced weapons-production facility,
sources familiar with the attack told the Wall
Street Journal. The operation was a major success, foreign
intelligence sources told The Jerusalem
Post.
Iran did not immediately blame a particular country or
group. But an unnamed Iranian official told al Jazeera that Israel appeared to
be responsible. “Israel knows very well that it will receive a response, as happened
in the past,” the official warned.
“Those who play with fire are the first to get burned if they decide to start a
regional war.” Iran claimed that air defenses downed one small quadcopter but
that two others exploded above the site and caused “minor roof damage”
to a munitions factory. The quadcopters, which have a short range, were
likely launched from
inside Iran.
April
1, 2024: An Israeli airstrike killed three
generals in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and four other officers at a consulate
abutting the Iranian embassy in Damascus. Technically, the consulate was
considered sovereign Iranian territory. The attack was an unprecedented
escalation in the decades-long shadow war between Israel and Iran. The
three generals were
part of the Qods Force, the external operations branch of the Revolutionary
Guards has aided, armed and coordinated with Iran’s so-called Axis of
Resistance network in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen since the 1980s.
The precision strike, reportedly by two
F-35s, targeted a meeting between Iranian officers and Palestinian
militia leaders to discuss the war in Gaza. The fatalities included:
General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, long-time coordinator of
Iran’s covert operations in Syria and Lebanon
General Mohmmad Hadi Haj Rahimi, Zahedi’s deputy
General Hossein Aman Allahi, chief of the general staff
of the Qods Force in Syria and Lebanon
Hussein Youssef, a member of Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite
militia and political party backed by Iran
April
19, 2024: Israel reportedly launched overnight strikes in Iran in
response to Tehran’s April 13-14 largely ineffective attack of more than 330
drones and missiles. The targets, weapons used, and extent of damage caused by
Israel's alleged attack were unclear. Initially, U.S. officials told media
that Israel had launched missiles and hit a
site in Iran. Experts assessed that
Israel used an air-launched missile based on photographs of missile debris
recovered in Iraq. But Iranian sources only reported the use of small drones.
Media and officials attributed the small-scale attack to “infiltrators” rather
than Israel. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran did not plan
to retaliate against
Jerusalem, which did not claim responsibility.
In central Isfahan province, antiaircraft defense systems
downed a suspicious object resulting in explosions, Major General Abdolrahim
Mousavi, the chief of Iran’s conventional military, the Artesh, told state
media. Three small drones were reportedly intercepted near an air
base. Hossein Dalirian, a spokesman for Iran’s civilian space agency, said that
there had been “no air attack from outside” Iran’s borders. “They have only
made a failed and humiliating attempt to fly quadcopters, and the quadcopters
have also been shot down.”
Isfahan province was home to a major airbase, a
missile production complex and nuclear research facilities. But local
media reported that
no damage was caused to any military or nuclear sites. The International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, confirmed that Iran’s nuclear
sites were unharmed.
July
31, 2024: Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the exiled wing
of Hamas and its chief negotiator on issues of war and peace, was assassinated during
a visit to Tehran for the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. He had
also met just hours earlier with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a sign
of Haniyeh’s standing with Iran. The stunning attack, widely assumed to be by
Israel, evoked rage in Iran and from its network in the so-called Axis of
Resistance.
