How Israel and Iran Came to Brink of Full-Fledged War
Emergency personnel at the site of strikes which hit a building next to the Iranian embassy in Syria's capital Damascus, on April 1.
Photographer: Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty ImagesA so-called shadow war between Israel and Iran has shaped the Middle East for decades. Of the many conflicts that have roiled the region, theirs has long been among the most explosive. The two have attacked each other — mostly quietly and in Iran’s case often by proxy — while avoiding an escalation into direct war. But as the fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Palestinian group Hamas has continued and other militant groups supported by Iran have joined the fray, their conflict has entered a dangerous new phase. On April 13, Iran launched a massive missile and drone attack on Israel, attacking the country for the first time from its own territory.
Iran’s April 13 assault was retaliation for an airstrike two weeks earlier on the country’s diplomatic buildings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, widely attributed to, but not ackowledged by, Israel. The strike killed seven Iranian military personnel, including a top commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s premier security force.