By Nana Karikari, Senior Global Affairs Correspondent
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Wednesday that the military has killed Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib in overnight strikes in Tehran. The strike marks the third assassination of a high-ranking Iranian official in just two days. The Israeli military described the Intelligence Ministry as having “advanced intelligence capabilities” and conducting operations worldwide, including those against Israel.
Iran did not immediately confirm Khatib’s death. This silence has been common so far in the war. Iranian state television instead aired live footage of a funeral procession in Tehran for other fallen leaders.
Rising Casualties Among Iranian Leadership
The killing of Khatib follows the deaths of top security official Ali Larijani and Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force. Larijani had emerged as a key wartime figure following the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei when the war began February 28. While the regime has been slow to acknowledge some losses, Iran’s official judiciary news agency later confirmed the killing of Soleimani, according to the Associated Press.
Thousands thronged to the processional as Larijani’s body and his son, also killed in an Israeli strike, paraded past on a bed of a semitruck adorned with images of the dead.
People waved Iranian flags at the funeral. Iran has increasingly turned toward large, pro-government events as Israeli airstrikes continue to kill the theocracy’s top leaders.
Israeli Strategy of Decapitation Strikes
Katz said “significant surprises are expected throughout this day on all the fronts,” noting that the “intensity of the attacks in Iran is increasing.” He stated that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized the IDF to target any senior Iranian official once it has sufficient intelligence.
“After the powerful assassinations of senior regime officials, the de facto leader of Iran Larijani and head of the Basij ‘Murder Inc.’ organization, Soleimani, the Iranian Intelligence Minister Khatib was also assassinated last night,” Katz said in a statement. He described Khatib as being “in charge of the regime’s internal murder and repression system.”
Khatib’s Profile and Domestic Role
Khatib was a Shiite cleric born in Ghayenat in Iran’s South Khorasan Province around 1960 or 1961. He worked in a variety of positions in Iran’s judiciary and the Intelligence Ministry. He held the title of Hujjat al-Islam, meaning “the proof of Islam,” and was a former student of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He served in the Revolutionary Guard in the Iran-Iraq war and was wounded in combat.
The IDF said Khatib “played a significant role in directing arrests and killings of protesters,” both in recent months and during the Mahsa Amini protests. The Israeli military added that he was responsible for ordering attacks against Israeli and American targets.
International Sanctions and Allegations
The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Khatib in 2022. It cited the Intelligence Ministry for “engaging in cyber-enabled activities against the United States and its allies.” The Treasury stated Khatib “directs several networks of cyber threat actors involved in cyber espionage and ransomware attacks in support of Iran’s political goals.”
“In addition to conducting malicious cyber activity that affected Albanian government websites, (Intelligence Ministry) cyber actors were also responsible for the leaking of documents purported to be from the Albanian government and personal information associated with Albanian residents,” the Treasury said. It also labeled the ministry as “one of the Iranian government’s main security services which is responsible for serious human rights abuses.”
Crackdown on Dissent and Human Rights
Under Khatib’s leadership, the ministry “has cracked down on a large number of human rights defenders, women-rights activists, journalists, filmmakers, and members of religious minority groups.” The Treasury reported the ministry subjected detainees to torture in secret detention centers during his tenure.
The ministry also “aggressively persecuted individuals reporting on human rights abuses and violations in Iran, as well as their families.” This internal repression made Khatib central to the regime’s stability.
Nuclear Intelligence Claims
In June 2025, Khatib claimed Iran seized documents from Israel’s nuclear program. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said the information “seems to refer” to the Soreq Nuclear Research Center.
Soreq, located 20 kilometers south of Tel Aviv, is a national laboratory for nuclear science established in 1958. It engages in nuclear science, radiation safety, and applied physics.
Regional Escalation and Retaliation
Iran launched new missile attacks on Tel Aviv overnight in revenge for its lost leaders. A man and woman were killed in their apartment in Ramat Gan. The Revolutionary Guard said it used multiple-warhead missiles, also known as cluster munitions, to target the Tel Aviv area on Wednesday.
Israel also struck central Beirut, killing 10 people. Health authorities have reported about 1,300 killed in Iran, 922 in Lebanon, and 16 in Israel since Feb. 28. U.S. Central Command stated 13 U.S. service members have been killed and roughly 200 troops wounded.
Resilience of the Iranian State
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera that the killings would not destabilize the leadership. He said Iran has “a strong political structure with established political, economic and social institutions.”
“The presence or absence of a single individual does not affect this structure,” Araghchi said. However, Western analysts like Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein noted that with figures like
Larijani gone—who was seen as someone the international community could speak to—it is difficult to find viable diplomatic counterparts within the Revolutionary Guard.
As the IDF prepares for further “surprises” across multiple fronts, the region remains locked in a cycle of high-level assassinations and retaliatory strikes. While Israel continues its campaign to dismantle the Iranian power structure by targeting its ideological and intelligence pillars, the Iranian government maintains that its institutional framework is robust enough to survive the loss of any single leader, even as the list of fallen officials continues to grow.
