Middle East & Africa | Strike and response

Tracking the Israel-Iran war

The latest data and maps on the conflict

Video: Getty, The White House via Storyful, Israel Fire & Rescue Authority via Storyful
)
Editor's note (June 25th 2025): This page is no longer being updated after Israel and Iran agreed a ceasefire. Read more of our coverage of war in the Middle East.
Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran to take effect on the morning of June 24th, potentially ending 12 days of fighting. But Israel claims Iran has already violated the ceasefire and says it plans to resume attacks. America had joined the conflict a few days before, using “bunker-busting” GBU-57 bombs to strike Iran’s underground nuclear facility at Fordow. Iran retaliated with a largely symbolic attack on a big American airbase in Qatar, before Mr Trump’s ceasefire announcement.

Air strikes, at June 22nd 22:00 GMT

Confirmed

Reported

Nuclear facility

Bombed by Israel/US

Other

400 km

AZER.

Caspian

Sea

TURKMENISTAN

TURKEY

Tabriz

Bonab

Piranshahr

Tehran

Mashhad

SYRIA

Fordow

Beirut

Natanz

Damascus

Med. Sea

Baghdad

Isfahan

ISRAEL

Jerusalem

Tel Aviv

IRAQ

Yazd

JORDAN

IRAN

The

Gulf

SAUDI ARABIA

Strait of

Hormuz

Al-Udeid air base

Red

Sea

QATAR

EGYPT

Riyadh

Gulf of Oman

Sources: Institute for the Study of War; AEI’s Critical Threats Project; The Economist

Air strikes, at June 22nd 22:00 GMT

Confirmed

Reported

Nuclear facility

Bombed by Israel/US

Other

AZER.

TURKMENISTAN

Caspian

Sea

Tabriz

Bonab

Tehran

Piranshahr

Mashhad

Fordow

Natanz

Isfahan

Yazd

IRAQ

IRAN

The

Gulf

Strait of

Hormuz

SAUDI

ARABIA

QATAR

300 km

Al-Udeid air base

UAE

Sources: Institute for the Study of War;

AEI’s Critical Threats Project; The Economist
Israel began its campaign against Iran on June 13th, with surprise airstrikes at 3:30am Iranian time. Israel’s armed forces struck command-and-control centres, ballistic-missile bases and air-defence batteries, as well as nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz. Binyamin Netanhyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said the attacks—named “Operation Rising Lion”—aimed to disable Iran’s nuclear programme. Since the initial attacks the two countries have exchanged waves of strikes. Iran has launched ballistic-missile and drone strikes at Israeli targets; Israel has hit more military facilities, nuclear plants and oil-and-gas infrastructure.
Natanz nuclear facility on 17th of June, showing damage from Israeli airstrikes
Image: Planet Labs
Destroyed buildings at the Isfahan nuclear technology centre in Iran, June 22nd
Image: Maxar Technologies
Israel also struck residential buildings in Tehran, the capital, to decapitate Iran’s military leadership. The Israel Defence Forces said it killed top commanders, including the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the head of Iran’s emergency command. Several other senior officials were also killed, as were some leading nuclear experts. On June 24th Iranian health officials said that Israeli strikes had killed at least 606 people.

Iranian strikes on Israel,

at June 22nd 09:00 GMT

Observed impacts of Iranian missiles

Damascus

LEBANON

SYRIA

UN buffer

zone

Mediterranean Sea

Golan

Heights

Haifa

ISRAEL

West

Bank

Tel Aviv

Amman

Jerusalem

Gaza city

JORDAN

Gaza

Strip

50 km

Sources: Institute for the Study of War;

AEI’s Critical Threats Project
On the evening of June 13th Iran started launching retaliatory missile strikes at Israel, targeting big cities such as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Subsequent targets have included Haifa, a port city in northern Israel. On June 24th Israeli authorities said Iranian strikes killed at least four people, bringing the total death toll in Israel since June 13th to 28.
Besides striking Israel, Iran’s options for retaliation include attacking American facilities in the region, or oil-shipping routes off its own southern coast. Such actions may be more likely now that America has entered the war directly.

Assassinated Iranians

General Hossein Salami, IRGC chief commander
General Salami was the commander of the most important branch of Iran’s armed forces. He held a hardline stance against America and Israel. America and the UN Security Council introduced sanctions against him for his involvement in Iran's nuclear programme.
General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces
General Bagheri was Iran’s top-ranking officer and second in command only to the supreme leader. He took part in the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and was a veteran of Iran’s war with Iraq in the 1980s. America imposed sanctions against him during Donald Trump’s first term.
General Gholam Ali Rashid, chief of Iran’s emergency-command headquarters
General Rashid led the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, a crucial centre for co-ordinating Iran’s military operations. Countries including Britain placed him under sanctions for his involvement in Iran’s aerial attack on Israel in April 2024.
General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of IRGC’s aerospace force
General Hajizadeh led Iran's missile programme; his unit is also thought to be responsible for overseeing Iran’s drone development. Israel said it killed most of the unit’s senior officers as they gathered for an underground meeting.
General Mohammad Kazemi, head of IRGC’s intelligence organisation
Israel said that General Kazemi was killed, along with his deputy, in an air strike on Tehran on June 15th. America had imposed sanctions on him in 2023, as did Britain in 2024.
General Ali Shadmani, Iran's wartime chief of staff
General Shadmani was killed in Tehran on June 17th. Ali Shadmani was recently appointed to replace General Gholam Ali Rashid as head of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters.
Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, nuclear scientist
Mr Abbasi-Davani was formerly head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation and a member of parliament between 2020 and 2024. He was a hardline advocate for Iran’s nuclear programme; countries including America had placed him under sanctions. He survived an assasination attempt in 2010, which Iran blamed on Israel.
Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, nuclear scientist
Mr Tehranchi was a nuclear physicist and head of a university in Tehran. He was thought to be involved in research related to nuclear weapons.
Source: News reports
For decades Israel has warned of the need to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons. Moreover, tensions between the countries grew dramatically after the attack on Israel by Hamas, an Iran-backed Palestinian militant group, on October 7th 2023, and the outbreak of wars in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond. The countries exchanged long-range attacks in April and October 2024. Israel claimed Iran was rapidly heading towards the construction of nuclear devices.
Top: Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Tehran; Bottom: Buildings damaged by an Iranian missile strike in Rehovot, Israel
Image: IMAGO / Eyevine
In March America’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said American intelligence agencies believed “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon”. The Iranians had been in talks with America over the future of their nuclear programme, but Israel’s initial attack halted those negotiations. Donald Trump spent days publicly mulling over the possibility of joining the war while urging Iran to resume negotiations, before ultimately ordering American strikes.

Fires tracker

Possible strike*
Other fires
Military, nuclear & industrial sites
*Fire at strategic site with no fires detected in nine days before June 13th
Sources:
  • NASA
  • Institute for the Study of War
  • AEI’s Critical Threats Project
  • The Economist
Since the initial attack, Israel has continued to strike targets in Iran. As well as attacking nuclear facilities, the IDF has bombed military emplacements around the country and has hit energy infrastructure too. We use data from FIRMS, NASA’s fire-detection satellite system, to assess where Israeli strikes may be taking place. Our system automatically detects large fires wherever skies are clear. It then categorises fires as possible strikes if they occur near a known strategic location where such events are not usually detected. It updates several times daily, as new data comes in.

Timeline of the conflict

Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing nearly 1,200 Israelis and taking around 250 hostages back to Gaza. Other Iranian proxies, such as Hizbullah in Lebanon, soon started firing rockets at Israel as the Gaza war began.
Israel bombed Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria’s capital. The strike killed seven Iranian officers, including General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the Quds Force, the expeditionary wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran fired more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel, the first strike on its rival from its own soil. With help from allies, Israel shot down almost all the missiles and drones. Five nights later Israel struck an air base near Isfahan in central Iran, though it did not publicly comment on the attack.
A bomb at a tea house in Tehran killed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s leader. Israel later claimed responsibility.
Israel launched an attack on Hizbullah, an Iranian-backed Shia militia, in which thousands of pagers used by the group’s officials exploded across Lebanon and Syria. Ten days later Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah’s long-time leader, in a strike on the group’s headquarters in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.
Iran launched a second direct attack on Israel, firing around 200 ballistic missiles. This time at least 20 missiles are thought to have made it through Israel’s air defences.
Israel carried out its first officially acknowledged attack on Iran, launching missiles at air-defence facilities and munitions factories in three provinces. The strikes avoided nuclear sites and oil-export terminals.
Following Donald Trump’s return to office, America and Iran began to pursue a deal over Iran’s nuclear programme. Five rounds of talks took place over two months with little progress; a sixth was scheduled for June 15th.
The IAEA voted to censure Iran, saying the country gave insufficient information about its undeclared nuclear material and facilities. America, Britain, France and Germany put forward the resolution.
Israel launched large-scale operations against Iran’s nuclear and military facilities, as well as targeted strikes on top military leaders and nuclear experts, in what it called Operation Rising Lion. Iran began retaliatory strikes against Israel.
American B-2 bombers, flying overnight from Missouri, struck Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordow. America also struck sites at Isfahan and Natanz. On June 23rd Iran launched retaliatory strikes on an American base in Qatar.
Source: News reports

More from

Middle East & Africa | Strike and response

Tracking the Israel-Iran war

The latest data and maps on the conflict

Video: Getty, The White House via Storyful, Israel Fire & Rescue Authority via Storyful
)
Editor's note (June 25th 2025): This page is no longer being updated after Israel and Iran agreed a ceasefire. Read more of our coverage of war in the Middle East.
Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran to take effect on the morning of June 24th, potentially ending 12 days of fighting. But Israel claims Iran has already violated the ceasefire and says it plans to resume attacks. America had joined the conflict a few days before, using “bunker-busting” GBU-57 bombs to strike Iran’s underground nuclear facility at Fordow. Iran retaliated with a largely symbolic attack on a big American airbase in Qatar, before Mr Trump’s ceasefire announcement.

Air strikes, at June 22nd 22:00 GMT

Confirmed

Reported

Nuclear facility

Bombed by Israel/US

Other

400 km

AZER.

Caspian

Sea

TURKMENISTAN

TURKEY

Tabriz

Bonab

Piranshahr

Tehran

Mashhad

SYRIA

Fordow

Beirut

Natanz

Damascus

Med. Sea

Baghdad

Isfahan

ISRAEL

Jerusalem

Tel Aviv

IRAQ

Yazd

JORDAN

IRAN

The

Gulf

SAUDI ARABIA

Strait of

Hormuz

Al-Udeid air base

Red

Sea

QATAR

EGYPT

Riyadh

Gulf of Oman

Sources: Institute for the Study of War; AEI’s Critical Threats Project; The Economist

Air strikes, at June 22nd 22:00 GMT

Confirmed

Reported

Nuclear facility

Bombed by Israel/US

Other

AZER.

TURKMENISTAN

Caspian

Sea

Tabriz

Bonab

Tehran

Piranshahr

Mashhad

Fordow

Natanz

Isfahan

Yazd

IRAQ

IRAN

The

Gulf

Strait of

Hormuz

SAUDI

ARABIA

QATAR

300 km

Al-Udeid air base

UAE

Sources: Institute for the Study of War;

AEI’s Critical Threats Project; The Economist
Israel began its campaign against Iran on June 13th, with surprise airstrikes at 3:30am Iranian time. Israel’s armed forces struck command-and-control centres, ballistic-missile bases and air-defence batteries, as well as nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz. Binyamin Netanhyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said the attacks—named “Operation Rising Lion”—aimed to disable Iran’s nuclear programme. Since the initial attacks the two countries have exchanged waves of strikes. Iran has launched ballistic-missile and drone strikes at Israeli targets; Israel has hit more military facilities, nuclear plants and oil-and-gas infrastructure.
Natanz nuclear facility on 17th of June, showing damage from Israeli airstrikes
Image: Planet Labs
Destroyed buildings at the Isfahan nuclear technology centre in Iran, June 22nd
Image: Maxar Technologies
Israel also struck residential buildings in Tehran, the capital, to decapitate Iran’s military leadership. The Israel Defence Forces said it killed top commanders, including the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the head of Iran’s emergency command. Several other senior officials were also killed, as were some leading nuclear experts. On June 24th Iranian health officials said that Israeli strikes had killed at least 606 people.

Iranian strikes on Israel,

at June 22nd 09:00 GMT

Observed impacts of Iranian missiles

Damascus

LEBANON

SYRIA

UN buffer

zone

Mediterranean Sea

Golan

Heights

Haifa

ISRAEL

West

Bank

Tel Aviv

Amman

Jerusalem

Gaza city

JORDAN

Gaza

Strip

50 km

Sources: Institute for the Study of War;

AEI’s Critical Threats Project
On the evening of June 13th Iran started launching retaliatory missile strikes at Israel, targeting big cities such as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Subsequent targets have included Haifa, a port city in northern Israel. On June 24th Israeli authorities said Iranian strikes killed at least four people, bringing the total death toll in Israel since June 13th to 28.
Besides striking Israel, Iran’s options for retaliation include attacking American facilities in the region, or oil-shipping routes off its own southern coast. Such actions may be more likely now that America has entered the war directly.

Assassinated Iranians

General Hossein Salami, IRGC chief commander
General Salami was the commander of the most important branch of Iran’s armed forces. He held a hardline stance against America and Israel. America and the UN Security Council introduced sanctions against him for his involvement in Iran's nuclear programme.
General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces
General Bagheri was Iran’s top-ranking officer and second in command only to the supreme leader. He took part in the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and was a veteran of Iran’s war with Iraq in the 1980s. America imposed sanctions against him during Donald Trump’s first term.
General Gholam Ali Rashid, chief of Iran’s emergency-command headquarters
General Rashid led the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, a crucial centre for co-ordinating Iran’s military operations. Countries including Britain placed him under sanctions for his involvement in Iran’s aerial attack on Israel in April 2024.
General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of IRGC’s aerospace force
General Hajizadeh led Iran's missile programme; his unit is also thought to be responsible for overseeing Iran’s drone development. Israel said it killed most of the unit’s senior officers as they gathered for an underground meeting.
General Mohammad Kazemi, head of IRGC’s intelligence organisation
Israel said that General Kazemi was killed, along with his deputy, in an air strike on Tehran on June 15th. America had imposed sanctions on him in 2023, as did Britain in 2024.
General Ali Shadmani, Iran's wartime chief of staff
General Shadmani was killed in Tehran on June 17th. Ali Shadmani was recently appointed to replace General Gholam Ali Rashid as head of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters.
Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, nuclear scientist
Mr Abbasi-Davani was formerly head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation and a member of parliament between 2020 and 2024. He was a hardline advocate for Iran’s nuclear programme; countries including America had placed him under sanctions. He survived an assasination attempt in 2010, which Iran blamed on Israel.
Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, nuclear scientist
Mr Tehranchi was a nuclear physicist and head of a university in Tehran. He was thought to be involved in research related to nuclear weapons.
Source: News reports
For decades Israel has warned of the need to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons. Moreover, tensions between the countries grew dramatically after the attack on Israel by Hamas, an Iran-backed Palestinian militant group, on October 7th 2023, and the outbreak of wars in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond. The countries exchanged long-range attacks in April and October 2024. Israel claimed Iran was rapidly heading towards the construction of nuclear devices.
Top: Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Tehran; Bottom: Buildings damaged by an Iranian missile strike in Rehovot, Israel
Image: IMAGO / Eyevine
In March America’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said American intelligence agencies believed “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon”. The Iranians had been in talks with America over the future of their nuclear programme, but Israel’s initial attack halted those negotiations. Donald Trump spent days publicly mulling over the possibility of joining the war while urging Iran to resume negotiations, before ultimately ordering American strikes.

Fires tracker

Possible strike*
Other fires
Military, nuclear & industrial sites
*Fire at strategic site with no fires detected in nine days before June 13th
Sources:
  • NASA
  • Institute for the Study of War
  • AEI’s Critical Threats Project
  • The Economist
Since the initial attack, Israel has continued to strike targets in Iran. As well as attacking nuclear facilities, the IDF has bombed military emplacements around the country and has hit energy infrastructure too. We use data from FIRMS, NASA’s fire-detection satellite system, to assess where Israeli strikes may be taking place. Our system automatically detects large fires wherever skies are clear. It then categorises fires as possible strikes if they occur near a known strategic location where such events are not usually detected. It updates several times daily, as new data comes in.

Timeline of the conflict

Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing nearly 1,200 Israelis and taking around 250 hostages back to Gaza. Other Iranian proxies, such as Hizbullah in Lebanon, soon started firing rockets at Israel as the Gaza war began.
Israel bombed Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria’s capital. The strike killed seven Iranian officers, including General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the Quds Force, the expeditionary wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran fired more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel, the first strike on its rival from its own soil. With help from allies, Israel shot down almost all the missiles and drones. Five nights later Israel struck an air base near Isfahan in central Iran, though it did not publicly comment on the attack.
A bomb at a tea house in Tehran killed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s leader. Israel later claimed responsibility.
Israel launched an attack on Hizbullah, an Iranian-backed Shia militia, in which thousands of pagers used by the group’s officials exploded across Lebanon and Syria. Ten days later Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah’s long-time leader, in a strike on the group’s headquarters in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.
Iran launched a second direct attack on Israel, firing around 200 ballistic missiles. This time at least 20 missiles are thought to have made it through Israel’s air defences.
Israel carried out its first officially acknowledged attack on Iran, launching missiles at air-defence facilities and munitions factories in three provinces. The strikes avoided nuclear sites and oil-export terminals.
Following Donald Trump’s return to office, America and Iran began to pursue a deal over Iran’s nuclear programme. Five rounds of talks took place over two months with little progress; a sixth was scheduled for June 15th.
The IAEA voted to censure Iran, saying the country gave insufficient information about its undeclared nuclear material and facilities. America, Britain, France and Germany put forward the resolution.
Israel launched large-scale operations against Iran’s nuclear and military facilities, as well as targeted strikes on top military leaders and nuclear experts, in what it called Operation Rising Lion. Iran began retaliatory strikes against Israel.
American B-2 bombers, flying overnight from Missouri, struck Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordow. America also struck sites at Isfahan and Natanz. On June 23rd Iran launched retaliatory strikes on an American base in Qatar.
Source: News reports

More from

Middle East & Africa | Strike and response

Tracking the Israel-Iran war

The latest data and maps on the conflict

Video: Getty, The White House via Storyful, Israel Fire & Rescue Authority via Storyful
)
Editor's note (June 25th 2025): This page is no longer being updated after Israel and Iran agreed a ceasefire. Read more of our coverage of war in the Middle East.
Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran to take effect on the morning of June 24th, potentially ending 12 days of fighting. But Israel claims Iran has already violated the ceasefire and says it plans to resume attacks. America had joined the conflict a few days before, using “bunker-busting” GBU-57 bombs to strike Iran’s underground nuclear facility at Fordow. Iran retaliated with a largely symbolic attack on a big American airbase in Qatar, before Mr Trump’s ceasefire announcement.

Air strikes, at June 22nd 22:00 GMT

Confirmed

Reported

Nuclear facility

Bombed by Israel/US

Other

400 km

AZER.

Caspian

Sea

TURKMENISTAN

TURKEY

Tabriz

Bonab

Piranshahr

Tehran

Mashhad

SYRIA

Fordow

Beirut

Natanz

Damascus

Med. Sea

Baghdad

Isfahan

ISRAEL

Jerusalem

Tel Aviv

IRAQ

Yazd

JORDAN

IRAN

The

Gulf

SAUDI ARABIA

Strait of

Hormuz

Al-Udeid air base

Red

Sea

QATAR

EGYPT

Riyadh

Gulf of Oman

Sources: Institute for the Study of War; AEI’s Critical Threats Project; The Economist

Air strikes, at June 22nd 22:00 GMT

Confirmed

Reported

Nuclear facility

Bombed by Israel/US

Other

AZER.

TURKMENISTAN

Caspian

Sea

Tabriz

Bonab

Tehran

Piranshahr

Mashhad

Fordow

Natanz

Isfahan

Yazd

IRAQ

IRAN

The

Gulf

Strait of

Hormuz

SAUDI

ARABIA

QATAR

300 km

Al-Udeid air base

UAE

Sources: Institute for the Study of War;

AEI’s Critical Threats Project; The Economist
Israel began its campaign against Iran on June 13th, with surprise airstrikes at 3:30am Iranian time. Israel’s armed forces struck command-and-control centres, ballistic-missile bases and air-defence batteries, as well as nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz. Binyamin Netanhyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said the attacks—named “Operation Rising Lion”—aimed to disable Iran’s nuclear programme. Since the initial attacks the two countries have exchanged waves of strikes. Iran has launched ballistic-missile and drone strikes at Israeli targets; Israel has hit more military facilities, nuclear plants and oil-and-gas infrastructure.
Natanz nuclear facility on 17th of June, showing damage from Israeli airstrikes
Image: Planet Labs
Destroyed buildings at the Isfahan nuclear technology centre in Iran, June 22nd
Image: Maxar Technologies
Israel also struck residential buildings in Tehran, the capital, to decapitate Iran’s military leadership. The Israel Defence Forces said it killed top commanders, including the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the head of Iran’s emergency command. Several other senior officials were also killed, as were some leading nuclear experts. On June 24th Iranian health officials said that Israeli strikes had killed at least 606 people.

Iranian strikes on Israel,

at June 22nd 09:00 GMT

Observed impacts of Iranian missiles

Damascus

LEBANON

SYRIA

UN buffer

zone

Mediterranean Sea

Golan

Heights

Haifa

ISRAEL

West

Bank

Tel Aviv

Amman

Jerusalem

Gaza city

JORDAN

Gaza

Strip

50 km

Sources: Institute for the Study of War;

AEI’s Critical Threats Project
On the evening of June 13th Iran started launching retaliatory missile strikes at Israel, targeting big cities such as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Subsequent targets have included Haifa, a port city in northern Israel. On June 24th Israeli authorities said Iranian strikes killed at least four people, bringing the total death toll in Israel since June 13th to 28.
Besides striking Israel, Iran’s options for retaliation include attacking American facilities in the region, or oil-shipping routes off its own southern coast. Such actions may be more likely now that America has entered the war directly.

Assassinated Iranians

General Hossein Salami, IRGC chief commander
General Salami was the commander of the most important branch of Iran’s armed forces. He held a hardline stance against America and Israel. America and the UN Security Council introduced sanctions against him for his involvement in Iran's nuclear programme.
General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces
General Bagheri was Iran’s top-ranking officer and second in command only to the supreme leader. He took part in the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and was a veteran of Iran’s war with Iraq in the 1980s. America imposed sanctions against him during Donald Trump’s first term.
General Gholam Ali Rashid, chief of Iran’s emergency-command headquarters
General Rashid led the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, a crucial centre for co-ordinating Iran’s military operations. Countries including Britain placed him under sanctions for his involvement in Iran’s aerial attack on Israel in April 2024.
General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of IRGC’s aerospace force
General Hajizadeh led Iran's missile programme; his unit is also thought to be responsible for overseeing Iran’s drone development. Israel said it killed most of the unit’s senior officers as they gathered for an underground meeting.
General Mohammad Kazemi, head of IRGC’s intelligence organisation
Israel said that General Kazemi was killed, along with his deputy, in an air strike on Tehran on June 15th. America had imposed sanctions on him in 2023, as did Britain in 2024.
General Ali Shadmani, Iran's wartime chief of staff
General Shadmani was killed in Tehran on June 17th. Ali Shadmani was recently appointed to replace General Gholam Ali Rashid as head of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters.
Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, nuclear scientist
Mr Abbasi-Davani was formerly head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation and a member of parliament between 2020 and 2024. He was a hardline advocate for Iran’s nuclear programme; countries including America had placed him under sanctions. He survived an assasination attempt in 2010, which Iran blamed on Israel.
Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, nuclear scientist
Mr Tehranchi was a nuclear physicist and head of a university in Tehran. He was thought to be involved in research related to nuclear weapons.
Source: News reports
For decades Israel has warned of the need to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons. Moreover, tensions between the countries grew dramatically after the attack on Israel by Hamas, an Iran-backed Palestinian militant group, on October 7th 2023, and the outbreak of wars in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond. The countries exchanged long-range attacks in April and October 2024. Israel claimed Iran was rapidly heading towards the construction of nuclear devices.
Top: Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Tehran; Bottom: Buildings damaged by an Iranian missile strike in Rehovot, Israel
Image: IMAGO / Eyevine
In March America’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said American intelligence agencies believed “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon”. The Iranians had been in talks with America over the future of their nuclear programme, but Israel’s initial attack halted those negotiations. Donald Trump spent days publicly mulling over the possibility of joining the war while urging Iran to resume negotiations, before ultimately ordering American strikes.

Fires tracker

Possible strike*
Other fires
Military, nuclear & industrial sites
*Fire at strategic site with no fires detected in nine days before June 13th
Sources:
  • NASA
  • Institute for the Study of War
  • AEI’s Critical Threats Project
  • The Economist
Since the initial attack, Israel has continued to strike targets in Iran. As well as attacking nuclear facilities, the IDF has bombed military emplacements around the country and has hit energy infrastructure too. We use data from FIRMS, NASA’s fire-detection satellite system, to assess where Israeli strikes may be taking place. Our system automatically detects large fires wherever skies are clear. It then categorises fires as possible strikes if they occur near a known strategic location where such events are not usually detected. It updates several times daily, as new data comes in.

Timeline of the conflict

Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing nearly 1,200 Israelis and taking around 250 hostages back to Gaza. Other Iranian proxies, such as Hizbullah in Lebanon, soon started firing rockets at Israel as the Gaza war began.
Israel bombed Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria’s capital. The strike killed seven Iranian officers, including General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the Quds Force, the expeditionary wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran fired more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel, the first strike on its rival from its own soil. With help from allies, Israel shot down almost all the missiles and drones. Five nights later Israel struck an air base near Isfahan in central Iran, though it did not publicly comment on the attack.
A bomb at a tea house in Tehran killed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s leader. Israel later claimed responsibility.
Israel launched an attack on Hizbullah, an Iranian-backed Shia militia, in which thousands of pagers used by the group’s officials exploded across Lebanon and Syria. Ten days later Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah’s long-time leader, in a strike on the group’s headquarters in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.
Iran launched a second direct attack on Israel, firing around 200 ballistic missiles. This time at least 20 missiles are thought to have made it through Israel’s air defences.
Israel carried out its first officially acknowledged attack on Iran, launching missiles at air-defence facilities and munitions factories in three provinces. The strikes avoided nuclear sites and oil-export terminals.
Following Donald Trump’s return to office, America and Iran began to pursue a deal over Iran’s nuclear programme. Five rounds of talks took place over two months with little progress; a sixth was scheduled for June 15th.
The IAEA voted to censure Iran, saying the country gave insufficient information about its undeclared nuclear material and facilities. America, Britain, France and Germany put forward the resolution.
Israel launched large-scale operations against Iran’s nuclear and military facilities, as well as targeted strikes on top military leaders and nuclear experts, in what it called Operation Rising Lion. Iran began retaliatory strikes against Israel.
American B-2 bombers, flying overnight from Missouri, struck Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordow. America also struck sites at Isfahan and Natanz. On June 23rd Iran launched retaliatory strikes on an American base in Qatar.
Source: News reports

More from

Middle East & Africa | Strike and response

Tracking the Israel-Iran war

The latest data and maps on the conflict

Video: Getty, The White House via Storyful, Israel Fire & Rescue Authority via Storyful
)
Editor's note (June 25th 2025): This page is no longer being updated after Israel and Iran agreed a ceasefire. Read more of our coverage of war in the Middle East.
Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran to take effect on the morning of June 24th, potentially ending 12 days of fighting. But Israel claims Iran has already violated the ceasefire and says it plans to resume attacks. America had joined the conflict a few days before, using “bunker-busting” GBU-57 bombs to strike Iran’s underground nuclear facility at Fordow. Iran retaliated with a largely symbolic attack on a big American airbase in Qatar, before Mr Trump’s ceasefire announcement.

Air strikes, at June 22nd 22:00 GMT

Confirmed

Reported

Nuclear facility

Bombed by Israel/US

Other

400 km

AZER.

Caspian

Sea

TURKMENISTAN

TURKEY

Tabriz

Bonab

Piranshahr

Tehran

Mashhad

SYRIA

Fordow

Beirut

Natanz

Damascus

Med. Sea

Baghdad

Isfahan

ISRAEL

Jerusalem

Tel Aviv

IRAQ

Yazd

JORDAN

IRAN

The

Gulf

SAUDI ARABIA

Strait of

Hormuz

Al-Udeid air base

Red

Sea

QATAR

EGYPT

Riyadh

Gulf of Oman

Sources: Institute for the Study of War; AEI’s Critical Threats Project; The Economist

Air strikes, at June 22nd 22:00 GMT

Confirmed

Reported

Nuclear facility

Bombed by Israel/US

Other

AZER.

TURKMENISTAN

Caspian

Sea

Tabriz

Bonab

Tehran

Piranshahr

Mashhad

Fordow

Natanz

Isfahan

Yazd

IRAQ

IRAN

The

Gulf

Strait of

Hormuz

SAUDI

ARABIA

QATAR

300 km

Al-Udeid air base

UAE

Sources: Institute for the Study of War;

AEI’s Critical Threats Project; The Economist
Israel began its campaign against Iran on June 13th, with surprise airstrikes at 3:30am Iranian time. Israel’s armed forces struck command-and-control centres, ballistic-missile bases and air-defence batteries, as well as nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz. Binyamin Netanhyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said the attacks—named “Operation Rising Lion”—aimed to disable Iran’s nuclear programme. Since the initial attacks the two countries have exchanged waves of strikes. Iran has launched ballistic-missile and drone strikes at Israeli targets; Israel has hit more military facilities, nuclear plants and oil-and-gas infrastructure.
Natanz nuclear facility on 17th of June, showing damage from Israeli airstrikes
Image: Planet Labs
Destroyed buildings at the Isfahan nuclear technology centre in Iran, June 22nd
Image: Maxar Technologies
Israel also struck residential buildings in Tehran, the capital, to decapitate Iran’s military leadership. The Israel Defence Forces said it killed top commanders, including the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the head of Iran’s emergency command. Several other senior officials were also killed, as were some leading nuclear experts. On June 24th Iranian health officials said that Israeli strikes had killed at least 606 people.

Iranian strikes on Israel,

at June 22nd 09:00 GMT

Observed impacts of Iranian missiles

Damascus

LEBANON

SYRIA

UN buffer

zone

Mediterranean Sea

Golan

Heights

Haifa

ISRAEL

West

Bank

Tel Aviv

Amman

Jerusalem

Gaza city

JORDAN

Gaza

Strip

50 km

Sources: Institute for the Study of War;

AEI’s Critical Threats Project
On the evening of June 13th Iran started launching retaliatory missile strikes at Israel, targeting big cities such as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Subsequent targets have included Haifa, a port city in northern Israel. On June 24th Israeli authorities said Iranian strikes killed at least four people, bringing the total death toll in Israel since June 13th to 28.
Besides striking Israel, Iran’s options for retaliation include attacking American facilities in the region, or oil-shipping routes off its own southern coast. Such actions may be more likely now that America has entered the war directly.

Assassinated Iranians

General Hossein Salami, IRGC chief commander
General Salami was the commander of the most important branch of Iran’s armed forces. He held a hardline stance against America and Israel. America and the UN Security Council introduced sanctions against him for his involvement in Iran's nuclear programme.
General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces
General Bagheri was Iran’s top-ranking officer and second in command only to the supreme leader. He took part in the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and was a veteran of Iran’s war with Iraq in the 1980s. America imposed sanctions against him during Donald Trump’s first term.
General Gholam Ali Rashid, chief of Iran’s emergency-command headquarters
General Rashid led the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, a crucial centre for co-ordinating Iran’s military operations. Countries including Britain placed him under sanctions for his involvement in Iran’s aerial attack on Israel in April 2024.
General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of IRGC’s aerospace force
General Hajizadeh led Iran's missile programme; his unit is also thought to be responsible for overseeing Iran’s drone development. Israel said it killed most of the unit’s senior officers as they gathered for an underground meeting.
General Mohammad Kazemi, head of IRGC’s intelligence organisation
Israel said that General Kazemi was killed, along with his deputy, in an air strike on Tehran on June 15th. America had imposed sanctions on him in 2023, as did Britain in 2024.
General Ali Shadmani, Iran's wartime chief of staff
General Shadmani was killed in Tehran on June 17th. Ali Shadmani was recently appointed to replace General Gholam Ali Rashid as head of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters.
Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, nuclear scientist
Mr Abbasi-Davani was formerly head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation and a member of parliament between 2020 and 2024. He was a hardline advocate for Iran’s nuclear programme; countries including America had placed him under sanctions. He survived an assasination attempt in 2010, which Iran blamed on Israel.
Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, nuclear scientist
Mr Tehranchi was a nuclear physicist and head of a university in Tehran. He was thought to be involved in research related to nuclear weapons.
Source: News reports
For decades Israel has warned of the need to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons. Moreover, tensions between the countries grew dramatically after the attack on Israel by Hamas, an Iran-backed Palestinian militant group, on October 7th 2023, and the outbreak of wars in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond. The countries exchanged long-range attacks in April and October 2024. Israel claimed Iran was rapidly heading towards the construction of nuclear devices.
Top: Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Tehran; Bottom: Buildings damaged by an Iranian missile strike in Rehovot, Israel
Image: IMAGO / Eyevine
In March America’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said American intelligence agencies believed “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon”. The Iranians had been in talks with America over the future of their nuclear programme, but Israel’s initial attack halted those negotiations. Donald Trump spent days publicly mulling over the possibility of joining the war while urging Iran to resume negotiations, before ultimately ordering American strikes.

Fires tracker

Possible strike*
Other fires
Military, nuclear & industrial sites
*Fire at strategic site with no fires detected in nine days before June 13th
Sources:
  • NASA
  • Institute for the Study of War
  • AEI’s Critical Threats Project
  • The Economist
Since the initial attack, Israel has continued to strike targets in Iran. As well as attacking nuclear facilities, the IDF has bombed military emplacements around the country and has hit energy infrastructure too. We use data from FIRMS, NASA’s fire-detection satellite system, to assess where Israeli strikes may be taking place. Our system automatically detects large fires wherever skies are clear. It then categorises fires as possible strikes if they occur near a known strategic location where such events are not usually detected. It updates several times daily, as new data comes in.

Timeline of the conflict

Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing nearly 1,200 Israelis and taking around 250 hostages back to Gaza. Other Iranian proxies, such as Hizbullah in Lebanon, soon started firing rockets at Israel as the Gaza war began.
Israel bombed Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria’s capital. The strike killed seven Iranian officers, including General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the Quds Force, the expeditionary wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran fired more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel, the first strike on its rival from its own soil. With help from allies, Israel shot down almost all the missiles and drones. Five nights later Israel struck an air base near Isfahan in central Iran, though it did not publicly comment on the attack.
A bomb at a tea house in Tehran killed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s leader. Israel later claimed responsibility.
Israel launched an attack on Hizbullah, an Iranian-backed Shia militia, in which thousands of pagers used by the group’s officials exploded across Lebanon and Syria. Ten days later Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah’s long-time leader, in a strike on the group’s headquarters in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.
Iran launched a second direct attack on Israel, firing around 200 ballistic missiles. This time at least 20 missiles are thought to have made it through Israel’s air defences.
Israel carried out its first officially acknowledged attack on Iran, launching missiles at air-defence facilities and munitions factories in three provinces. The strikes avoided nuclear sites and oil-export terminals.
Following Donald Trump’s return to office, America and Iran began to pursue a deal over Iran’s nuclear programme. Five rounds of talks took place over two months with little progress; a sixth was scheduled for June 15th.
The IAEA voted to censure Iran, saying the country gave insufficient information about its undeclared nuclear material and facilities. America, Britain, France and Germany put forward the resolution.
Israel launched large-scale operations against Iran’s nuclear and military facilities, as well as targeted strikes on top military leaders and nuclear experts, in what it called Operation Rising Lion. Iran began retaliatory strikes against Israel.
American B-2 bombers, flying overnight from Missouri, struck Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordow. America also struck sites at Isfahan and Natanz. On June 23rd Iran launched retaliatory strikes on an American base in Qatar.
Source: News reports

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