Bombs and viruses: The shadowy historical past of Israel’s assaults on Iranian soil | Israel Struggle on Gaza Information

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From cyberattacks and assassinations to drone strikes, Israel-linked plots have focused Iran and its nuclear programme for years.

Israel’s leaders have signalled that they’re weighing their choices on how to reply to Iran’s assault early Sunday morning, when Tehran focused its archenemy with greater than 300 missiles and drones.

Iran’s assault, which adopted an Israeli strike final week on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, that killed 13 folks was historic: It was the primary time Tehran had immediately focused Israeli soil, regardless of a long time of hostility. Till Sunday, a lot of Iran’s allies within the so-called axis of resistance — particularly the Palestinian group Hamas, the Lebanese group Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and armed teams in Iraq and Syria — have been those who launched missiles and drones at Israel.

But when Israel have been to hit again militarily inside Iran, it wouldn’t be the primary time. Removed from it.

For years, Israel has centered on one goal inside Iran particularly: the nation’s nuclear programme. Israel has lengthy accused Iran of clandestinely constructing a nuclear bomb that might threaten its existence — and has publicly, and steadily, spoken of its diplomatic and intelligence-driven efforts to derail these alleged efforts. Iran denies that it has had a navy nuclear programme, whereas arguing that it has the precise to entry civil nuclear vitality.

As Israel prepares its response, right here’s a take a look at the vary of assaults in Iran — from drone strikes and cyberattacks to assassinations of scientists and the theft of secrets and techniques — that Israel has both accepted it was behind or is accused of getting orchestrated.

Assassinations of Iranian scientists

• January 2010: A physics professor at Tehran College, Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, was killed via a remote-controlled bomb planted in his bike. Iranian state media claimed that the US and Israel have been behind the assault. The Iranian authorities described Ali-Mohammadi as a nuclear scientist.
• November 2010: A professor on the nuclear engineering school at Shahid Beheshti College in Tehran, Majid Shahriari, was killed in a automotive explosion on his method to work. His spouse was additionally wounded. The president of Iran on the time, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, blamed the USA and Israel for the assaults.
• January 2012: Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemical engineering graduate, was killed by a bomb positioned on his automotive by a motorcyclist in Tehran. Iran blamed Israel and the US for the assault and stated Ahmadi Roshan was a nuclear scientist who supervised a division at Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility, within the metropolis of Natanz.
• November 2020:Distinguished nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in a roadside assault exterior Tehran. Western and Israeli intelligence had lengthy suspected that Fakhrizadeh was the daddy of an Iranian nuclear weapons programme. He was sanctioned by the United Nations in 2007 and the US in 2008.
• Could 2022: Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was shot 5 occasions exterior of his dwelling in Tehran. Majid Mirahmadi, a member of Iran’s Supreme Nationwide Safety Council, alleged the assassination was “positively the work of Israel”.

Israel’s cyberattacks on Iran

• June 2010:The Stuxnet virus was present in computer systems on the nuclear plant in Iran’s Bushehr metropolis, and it unfold from there to different services. As many as 30,000 computer systems throughout a minimum of 14 services have been impacted by September 2010. At the least 1,000 out of 9,000 centrifuges in Iran’s Natanz enrichment facility have been destroyed, based on an estimate by the Institute for Science and Worldwide Safety. Upon investigation, Iran blamed Israel and the US for the virus assault.
• April 2011: A virus known as Stars was found by the Iranian cyberdefence company which stated the malware was designed to infiltrate and harm Iran’s nuclear services. The virus mimicked official authorities recordsdata and inflicted “minor harm” on laptop techniques, based on Gholamreza Jalali, the top of Iran’s Passive Protection Group. Iran blamed Israel and the US.
• November 2011: Iran stated it found a brand new virus known as Duqu, primarily based on Stuxnet. Consultants stated Duqu was meant to assemble information for future cyberattacks. The Iranian authorities introduced it was checking computer systems at foremost nuclear websites. The Duqu adware was extensively believed by specialists to have been linked to Israel.
• April 2012: Iran blamed the US and Israel for malware known as Wiper, which erased the exhausting drives of computer systems owned by the Ministry of Petroleum and the Nationwide Iranian Oil Firm.
• Could 2012: Iran introduced {that a} virus known as Flame had tried to steal authorities information from authorities computer systems. The Washington Publish reported that Israel and the US had used it to gather intelligence. Then-Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon didn’t verify the nation’s involvement however acknowledged that Israel would use all means to “hurt the Iranian nuclear system”.
• October 2018: The Iranian authorities stated that it had blocked an invasion by a brand new technology of Stuxnet, blaming Israel for the assault.
• October 2021: A cyberattack hit the system that permits Iranians to make use of government-issued playing cards to buy gas at a subsidised price, affecting all 4,300 petrol stations in Iran. Shoppers needed to both pay the common worth, greater than double the subsidised one, or watch for stations to reconnect to the central distribution system. Iran blamed Israel and the US.
• Could 2020: A cyberattack impacted computer systems that management maritime visitors at Shahid Rajaee port on Iran’s southern coast within the Gulf, making a hold-up of ships that waited to dock. The Washington Publish quoted US officers as saying that Israel was behind the assault, although Israel didn’t declare duty.

Israel’s drone strikes and raids on Iran

• January 2018: Mossad brokers raided a safe Tehran facility, stealing categorised nuclear archives. In April 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu introduced that Israel found 100,000 “secret recordsdata that show” Iran lied about by no means having a nuclear weapons programme.
• February 2022: Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett admitted in an op-ed printed in The Wall Avenue Journal in December 2023, that Israel carried out an assault on an unmanned aerial car, and assassinated a senior IRGC commander in February of the earlier yr.
• Could 2022: Explosives-laden quadcopter suicide drones hit the Parchin navy advanced southeast of Tehran, killing an engineer and damaging a constructing the place drones had been developed by the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces. IRGC Commander Hossein Salami pledged retaliation towards unspecified “enemies”.
• January 2023: A number of suicide drones struck a navy facility in central Isfahan, however they have been thwarted and precipitated no harm. Whereas Iran didn’t instantly place blame for the assaults, Iran’s UN envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, wrote a letter to the UN chief saying that “main investigation prompt Israel was accountable”.
• February 2024: A pure fuel pipeline in Iran was attacked. Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owji alleged that the “explosion of the fuel pipeline was an Israeli plot”.