Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed that Ismail Khatib, Iran’s intelligence minister, was eliminated. “During this day, significant surprises are expected across all fronts that will escalate the war we are waging against Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon,” Katz said. “The intensity of the strikes in Iran is increasing — overnight, Iran’s intelligence minister Khatib was also eliminated. The prime minister and I authorized the Israel Defense Forces to target any senior Iranian official once actionable intelligence is obtained, without the need for additional approval.”
According to Katz, “we are in the decisive phase. Following the powerful eliminations of senior regime figures — Iran’s de facto leader Ali Larijani and the head of the Basij, Gholamreza Soleimani — overnight Iran’s intelligence minister was also killed. He was responsible for the regime’s internal repression apparatus and for advancing external threats.” The Basij is a paramilitary militia under Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “Israel’s policy is clear and unequivocal: no one in Iran has immunity, and everyone is a target,” Katz added.
Earlier, the opposition-affiliated outlet Iran International reported that Israel attempted to eliminate Iran’s intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib, in overnight strikes in Tehran. The outlet said his fate was unknown. ynet has learned that indications are he was killed.
Khatib was appointed intelligence minister in 2021. Iran International reported that he was considered especially close to the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. In November, before the outbreak of mass protests in the Islamic Republic, Khatib warned of “conditions for the emergence of public discontent,” and told a Security Council meeting that “the enemy is trying to harm Supreme Leader Khamenei.”
It also appears that the commander of the Imam Hussein Division in Beirut was eliminated overnight, having taken up the role only days ago after his predecessor, Ali Tabaja, was killed last week. The militia includes operatives of various nationalities from across the Middle East and was established in 2016 under Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad in 2020.
The IDF said Wednesday that overnight, the Israeli Air Force, guided by Military Intelligence, struck sites belonging to Iran’s ballistic missile array and other regime infrastructure. Targets included the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps security unit responsible for handling protests and unrest inside Iran, a maintenance center of the Internal Security Forces’ logistics and support division and a command center tied to the ballistic missile array.
At the same time, the IDF said, several air defense systems were struck in an effort to expand the air force’s aerial superiority over Iran. “The completed strikes are part of a phase of deepening the damage to the core systems and foundations of the Iranian terror regime,” the military said, without addressing the intelligence minister.
“What matters is the strength of the Iranian political system. We have not had a more important person than the leader (Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei), and even when the leader was killed, the system continued to function and a successor was immediately appointed. If another person is killed, it will be the same,” he added.
Araghchi also addressed the possibility that he himself could be targeted. “If the foreign minister is attacked one day, ultimately someone else will take his place. Anyone can be a target, but like everyone else we will stand firm and strive for the goals and interests of our country. If necessary, we will sacrifice our lives for these goals.”
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