Israel Says Killed Iran Intel Chief, Tells Military to Hunt Down Officials
Israel said Wednesday its forces had killed another top Iranian official, Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, and said its military was authorized to kill any senior figure of the country in its sights.
The announcement, the day after Iranian security chief Ali Larijani was confirmed killed in an Israeli strike, is part of a longstanding strategy by Israel to target its enemy's leaders.
"Last night Iran's Intelligence Minister Khatib was also eliminated," Israeli Defense Minister Katz said in a statement.
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorized the army to eliminate any senior Iranian official for whom the intelligence and operational circle has been closed, without the need for additional approval," he added.
"We will continue to thwart and hunt them all down."
There was no immediate comment or confirmation from Iran, which had responded with fury and vows of revenge to the death of Larijani.
The two sides have been at war for more than two weeks since US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28 killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei and ignited a regional conflict.
Israel said this week it had also targeted Akram al-Ajouri, head of the military wing of the group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in a strike in Iran.
And it has vowed to hunt down Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since he succeeded his father.
David Khalfa, co-founder of the Atlantic Middle East Forum, described Israel's strategy as "a campaign of 'counter-regime warfare".
It was "aimed at dismantling the regime's politico-security architecture to make it waver on its foundations", he wrote on X before the news on Khatib.
Katz said that “significant surprises are expected throughout this day on all the fronts,” without elaborating.
Khatib’s killing follows Israel killing top Iranian security official Ali Larijani and the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force.
The US Treasury had sanctioned Khatib in 2022, over the Intelligence Ministry “engaging in cyber-enabled activities against the United States and its allies.”
Khatib “directs several networks of cyber threat actors involved in cyber espionage and ransomware attacks in support of Iran’s political goals,” the Treasury said at the time.
The Treasury also called Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in another round of sanctions “one of the Iranian government’s main security services which is responsible for serious human rights abuses.”
“Under his leadership, the (Intelligence Ministry) has cracked down on a large number of human rights defenders, women-rights activists, journalists, filmmakers, and members of religious minority groups,” it said.
Israel has pursued what analysts have described as a policy of decapitation against Iran and the armed movements it backs in the region, killing Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah in 2024 and several top Hamas figures since the October 7, 2023 attacks that sparked the Gaza war.
