A bomb attached to a car carrying the wife of an Israeli embassy official exploded on a New Delhi street in February 2012, wounding the Israeli diplomat and several others. The attack, occurring near the Prime Minister's residence, drew immediate suspicion toward Iran and its proxies and represented a significant escalation in what appeared to be a covert war between Israel and Iran playing out on multiple continents simultaneously.

On the same day as the New Delhi attack, a bombing attempt targeting Israeli diplomats was foiled in Tbilisi, Georgia, and Israeli officials connected both to an attack in Bangkok days earlier. The near-simultaneous nature of the operations pointed to coordinated planning.

India's investigation focused on Hezbollah operatives allegedly acting on Iranian direction. Iran and Hezbollah denied responsibility. The incident was diplomatically sensitive — India maintains relationships with both Israel and Iran, and is dependent on Iranian oil while also cultivating close security ties with Israel.

The attack fit a pattern that analysts had been tracking: a shadow conflict between Israel and Iran, conducted through assassinations, bombings, and cyberattacks that fell below the threshold of conventional warfare but reflected the underlying conflict over Iran's nuclear program and Israel's determination to disrupt it.

Israeli officials had blamed Iran for the deaths of Iranian nuclear scientists — assassinations widely attributed to Israeli intelligence. Iran's retaliation, if the New Delhi attack was indeed Iranian-directed, targeted Israeli diplomatic personnel abroad.

The incident served as a reminder that the conflict between the two countries had physical dimensions beyond the diplomatic and rhetorical — and that its effects were felt far beyond the Middle East.