# 2024 Israeli strikes on Tehran

Starting on 26 October, Israel launched strikes on the Iranian capital of Tehran. The attacks was heavily anticipated by the international community as a result of Iranian strikes into Israel earlier in the month.

## Background

On 7 October 2023, Hamas, a Palestinian militant group partially funded by Iran, launched an attack on Israel resulting in the deaths of almost 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war. Israel also skirmished with Iranian proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon. After the attack, Israel began targeting Iranian and proxy troops in Syria more frequently as retaliation. Israel killed some Iranian officials during this time, heightening tensions. Fears of a regional war grew in the following months.
On 1 April, Israel bombed the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria. The attack killed 16 people, including multiple Iranian officers and proxy fighters. Most notably, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander for the Quds Force was killed in the airstrike. Iranian officials in the building were allegedly meeting with Palestinian militant leaders at the time of the attack. In response, Iran and it's proxies struck Israel on 13 April, targeting military bases. On 19 April, Israel struck an air defense facility in Isfahan, Iran in retaliation. The strikes were limited and de-escalated tensions.
On 31 July, Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander was assassinated in an Israeli strike on Haret Hreik, in the suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut. Iranian military adviser Milad Bedi and civilians were also killed in the strike. The strike was retaliation for the Majdal Shams attack, which killed twelve children, that Israel claimed Shukr had ordered. That same day, Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, was assassinated along with his personal bodyguard in the Iranian capital Tehran by an apparent Israeli attack. Haniyeh was killed in his accommodation in a military-run guesthouse after attending the inauguration ceremony for Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian. Iran vowed to retaliate.
On 17 September, Israel adopted a new war goal; to return civilians displaced by Hezbollah back to their homes in northern Israel. Later that day and the next, thousands of communications devices (including pagers and walkie-talkies) exploded simultaneously across Lebanon and Syria, with Israel aiming to attack Hezbollah members. The attack killed 42 people. In response, Hezbollah launched rocket attacks on northern Israeli cities and towns, including Nazareth, on 22 September. On 23 September, Israel killed two of Hezbollah top commanders, Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wehbe in Dahieh, south of Beirut. On 23 September, Israel began a bombing campaign of southern Lebanon.
On 27 September 2024, Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh. The strike took place while Hezbollah leaders were meeting at a headquarters located underground beneath residential buildings. The attack also killed Ali Karaki, the Commander of Hezbollah's Southern Front and Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of the IRGC and commander of the Quds Force in Lebanon. Israel invaded Lebanon on 1 October.
In response to the killings of Haniyeh, Nilforoushan, and Nasrallah, Iran struck Israel that day, damaging military bases.