How Israel and Iran’s April war unfolded

An apparent Israeli attack on Iran has further ratcheted up tensions between the two arch-rivals, whose long-running shadow war has now been dragged firmly into the open.

The two nations’ enmity stretches back decades, with the onset of the war in Gaza late last year triggering a pattern of tit-for-tat escalation that threatens yet to spark a wider regional conflagration and has raised fears of a Third World War.

Since the beginning of April, and an Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate in Syria, those concerns have only grown.

An Iranian consulate building next to the Islamic Republic’s main embassy in Damascus went up in flames after it was hit by a suspected Israeli air strike following months of rising tensions between the two sworn enemies.

Footage from the scene showed smoke rising from the rubble of the five-story building, reduced to a pile of twisted rebar and smashed concrete, and emergency vehicles stationed outside.

Israel neither confirmed nor denied the attack.

By the evening, Iranian state TV confirmed the attack, reporting Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi had been killed in the strike.

Zahedi was a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) believed to be in charge of Iran’s operations in Syria and Lebanon.

In total, 13 people were killed.

Hossein Akbari, the Iranian ambassador to Syria, told state TV that the strike was carried out by six missiles fired from F35 fighter jets and vowed revenge “at the same magnitude and harshness”.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, vowed revenge the day after the attack in Syria.

“The evil regime will be punished by the hands of our brave warriors,” Khamenei said, according to Iranian state media. “We will make them regret this crime and the like by God’s grace.”

Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian president, also pledged the “crime” would not “go unanswered”.

Analysts said that Iran faced a dilemma, noting it would appear weak if it failed to respond but also risked harsher US or Israeli action if it retaliated.

Joe Biden warned on April 13 that he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and urged Tehran to restrain themselves.

Israel began to brace itself for an assault, shutting schools for 48 hours and closing beaches near the front line.

Just hours later, Iranian drones were spotted over Tehran.

It marked the start of Iran’s first direct attack on Israel, Operation True Promise, which would come to involve more than 300 drones and missiles.

In the middle of the night, drones launched from Iran were seen flying low as they passed over Iraq, with social media awash with clips of the weapons, making a loud buzzing noise as they went.

Sirens sounded in Jerusalem, across southern and northern Israel and in the Golan Heights.

The White House said an “airborne attack” against Israel was likely to “unfold over a number of hours” and vowed to “support” Israel against the threat.

The US joined with Israel and the UK to intercept the drones, which were spotted soaring over the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem.

In a recorded briefing, Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, confirmed the RAF had shot down a number of the unmanned aerial vehicles.

Interceptions lit up the night sky across the country, with Israel releasing grainy video clips taken from a fighter jet showing the moment some drones were blown into pieces.

As the attack continued, all commercial flights were rerouted away from the area.

Footage released by Iran showed drones with messages for Israel written on them and the moment some were launched.

In the clips, balls of orange fire can be seen as the weapons shoot from the ground, leaving clouds of dust in their wake.

Iran then launched missiles towards Israel.

IRGC said the ballistic missiles were fired around an hour after the slower-moving drones, so that they would hit Israel at around the same time.

Israel shot down more than 99 per cent of the drones and missiles, aided by its Western allies. Neighbouring Jordan also intercepted “flying objects” in its airspace.

Reports emerged that a seven-year-old Israeli girl was injured by shrapnel from falling debris in a Bedouin town near Arad, in the southern Negev region.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the country’s security minister, said the following day that a strong reaction from Israel was needed to “create a deterrent in the Middle East”.

“Ideas of containment and moderation are the perceptions that ended on Oct 7,” Mr Ben-Gvir, said in a statement late on April 14.

“To create a deterrent in the Middle East, Israel has got to show that it is prepared to go berserk.”

His comments came after Benny Gantz and Yoav Gallant, both of whom have close ties to the Biden administration and are members of Israel’s three-member war cabinet alongside Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, made it clear that they intended to listen to Washington and refrain from decisions that could lead to escalation.

Israel launched a retaliatory strike against Iran, with explosions reported near a military base in the central city of Isfahan.

Iran said it had shot down drones near the facility, while two US officials said an Israeli missile hit Iranian territory in the early hours of the morning.

Although the exact location or extent of the Israeli strike has not been revealed, local sources suggested three explosions were heard near the Isfahan air base, which sits close to a major nuclear facility.

The International Atomic Energy Agency and Iranian state-owned media said that no damage had been caused to nuclear sites.

Before the strikes, Iran had vowed to retaliate immediately if attacked, and “at a maximum level”.