How Israel And Iran’s Conflict Went From Covert To All-Out Fighting

imrs — An explosion is seen during a missile attack in Tel Aviv on Friday. (Tomer Neuberg/AP)

By Victoria Bisset

Israel and Iran are engaged in their most sustained, direct fighting ever, as the strikes between the two regional powers raise fears that the conflict could spread.

The two sides have been enemies for decades — within days of the Iranian revolution of 1979, Tehran broke off diplomatic ties with Israel. Later the same year, Islamist students stormed and occupied the U.S. Embassy, sparking a hostage crisis that lasted 444 days; the United States and Iran ended relations the following year. In the years that followed, Iran has called Israel “Little Satan” (with the United States being “Great Satan”) and expressed support for the destruction of Israel.

Although both sides have publicly criticized each other for years, the sharper, more violent conflict between Israel and Iran was mostly covert, with Iran supporting proxy groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, against Israel, while Israel was blamed for several targeted assassinations, blasts, and a cyberattack aimed at slowing Iran’s nuclear program. The Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing start of Israel’s war in Gaza have pitted Iran and its regional proxies against Israel in a much more open confrontation.

2010: Cyberattack hits Iran

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The world learns about a damaging cyberattack against Iran’s nuclear program that began many months earlier. The cyberweapon, dubbed Stuxnet by outside analysts, destroyed more than 10 percent of the centrifuges used to enrich uranium at Iran’s Natanz site — but the machines were quickly replaced, The Washington Post reported. Current and former U.S. officials later told The Post that the cyberweapon was the work of U.S. and Israeli experts, and proceeded under secret orders from President Barack Obama.

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