How Far Is Israel From Iran? 1,580 km and 12 Minutes by Missile

Tehran is about 1,580 km (980 miles) from Tel Aviv, 1,560 km (970 miles) from Jerusalem and 1,540 km (960 miles) from Haifa.

Other Iranian cities give a sense of the spread. Kermanshah, in the west, is about 1,170 km (730 miles) from Tel Aviv. Tabriz, in the northwest, is about 1,240 km (770 miles) from Tel Aviv. Isfahan, in the center, is about 1,590 km (990 miles) from Tel Aviv. Shiraz, in the south, is about 1,720 km (1,070 miles) from Tel Aviv. Mashhad, in the far northeast, is about 2,330 km (1,440 miles) from Tel Aviv.

The nuclear sites sit at similar distances. Natanz is about 1,590 km from Tel Aviv and from Israel’s nuclear research center near Dimona. Fordow, south of Tehran, is about 1,530 km from Tel Aviv.

A straight line from Tehran to Tel Aviv crosses western Iran and the length of Iraq, then runs along the Syrian-Jordanian border before it reaches the Jordan Valley.

About 930 km (580 miles). That is the gap between the stretch of Iran’s border with Iraq near Qasr-e Shirin, in Kermanshah province, and Metula on Israel’s northern edge.

Every part of Israel lies between roughly 930 km and 1,150 km from the nearest point of Iran. Eilat, at Israel’s southern tip, is the farthest major city from the Iranian border, about 1,140 km away.

The countries in between have been part of every exchange of fire. In April 2024, Jordan said it shot down objects that entered its airspace during Iran’s attack on Israel. Israeli aircraft flying to Iran have to cross the airspace of Syria, Iraq or Jordan, or take a much longer route around the Arabian Peninsula.

About 12 minutes for a ballistic missile. After Iran’s attack on April 13 and 14, 2024, the Israeli military displayed a missile that had fallen into the Dead Sea and said it had flown more than 1,500 km in roughly 12 minutes, at a top speed of about Mach 6.

The figure fits the physics. A medium-range missile climbs out of the atmosphere, coasts and falls back at several kilometers a second, so the 1,000 to 1,600 km from western or central Iran takes 10 to 13 minutes. Israel’s warning is shorter still. Radar and satellites have to detect the launch and work out where the missile will land before sirens sound. In the 2026 war, Israel’s Home Front Command has sent alerts to phones in the target areas once launches from Iran were detected, ahead of the sirens.

Faster times claimed in Iran, such as an Iranian official’s 2017 boast that a missile could reach Tel Aviv in seven minutes, have never been shown. Our explainer on the Sejjil missile covers how one of Iran’s longest-range missiles flies.

Much longer, because they fly slowly and low. A cruise missile flies at about the speed of an airliner and takes roughly two hours to reach Israel from Iran. A Shahed-136-type drone cruises at about 185 km an hour. Over 1,000 to 1,600 km, that works out at around five and a half to nine hours.

Iran used those differences on purpose. On April 13 and 14, 2024, it launched about 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles, the Israeli military said, timed so the slow weapons and fast ones would arrive close together. The Israeli military said 25 of the cruise missiles and all of the drones were brought down before they reached Israeli airspace. On June 13, 2025, Israel’s military spokesman, Brigadier General Effie Defrin, said Iran had launched more than 100 drones toward Israel. The drones would take hours to arrive, and none of them reached their targets, the military said later that day.

The long flight is what makes drones easy to catch. Israel, the United States and their partners had hours to track them across Iraq, Syria and Jordan.

Yes. Iran’s medium-range missiles can reach all of Israel from most of Iran. In October 2017, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said Iran’s missiles were limited to a range of 2,000 km on the supreme leader’s orders, and that Iran could build longer-range missiles if it chose to. Missiles such as the Sejjil and Khorramshahr are credited with about 2,000 km.

Two thousand kilometers covers Israel from Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz and the western provinces. It does not cover Israel from the far east of Iran: Mashhad, about 2,330 km from Tel Aviv, is beyond that range. So Iran’s missile force has to fire from its western and central regions, which keeps its launchers closer to Israel and within easier reach of Israeli aircraft. How many missiles Iran still holds is covered in our estimate of how many missiles Iran has left.

There are no direct flights, and none have run since the 1979 revolution. Iran does not recognize Israel, and Israel lists Iran as an enemy state that its citizens may not visit. A passenger jet flying the straight line between Tehran and Tel Aviv would need a little under two hours.

Military aircraft face a harder trip. Israel’s opening strike on June 13, 2025, involved about 200 fighter jets hitting more than 100 targets, the Israeli military said. Its jets have to fly 1,000 to 1,600 km each way and need aerial refueling to reach central Iran and come back with useful payloads. Whether a caretaker government can order such a mission is covered in our explainer on Netanyahu’s powers before a new coalition is formed.