Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has announced that Iran’s intelligence minister, Esmaeil Khatib, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Tehran overnight.
Speaking during a security briefing, Katz said, “Today, significant developments are expected across multiple arenas that will escalate the operations we are conducting against Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon,” according to his office.
Earlier, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council confirmed the death of its chief, Ali Larijani, following Israeli claims of his killing in a separate strike.
Khatib, appointed as intelligence minister in 2021 by former president Ebrahim Raisi, was a long-time cleric who studied Islamic jurisprudence under senior religious authorities, including the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
He held senior roles in Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and the Office of the Supreme Leader and was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2022 for cyber operations targeting the United States and its allies.
Khatib reportedly joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 1980, shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
