His defense minister announced that his intelligence minister Ismail Khatib had been “killed” overnight.
“He was the head of the regime’s internal apparatus in charge of assassinations and repression in Iran, as well as promoting threats abroad,” Katz added, warning that the intensity of Israeli attacks would increase “by a level.”
There has been no confirmation from Tehran about the death of the Iranian official.
Katz said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have given the Israeli military permission to kill any other top Iranian officials it targets without additional authorization.
The kill that follows top attacks
Khatib’s killing follows the deaths of top Iranian security official Ali Larijani and the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij volunteer force.
The Israeli defense minister said “significant surprises are expected throughout the day on all fronts,” without giving further details.
US sanctions for cyber attacks and repression
The US Treasury had imposed sanctions on Khatib in 2022, accusing Iran’s Intelligence Ministry of “cyber-active attacks against the US and its allies”.
According to U.S. authorities, Khatib ran networks of cyberattackers involved in espionage and ransomware attacks for Iranian political purposes. Its activities affected, among others, Albanian government websites and led to the leaking of documents and personal data of Albanian citizens.
Oppression of human rights
The US Treasury has called Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence “one of the government’s main security agencies, responsible for serious human rights abuses”.
During Khatib’s leadership, the ministry has cracked down on women’s rights activists, journalists, filmmakers and members of religious minorities, and has been accused of detaining and torturing prisoners in secret detention centers.
The IDF’s announcement of the extermination of Khatib
“The killing spree continues: IDF kills Iran’s terrorist regime’s Intelligence Minister in Tehran.
In a precision strike by the Air Force, led by the Military Intelligence Service, in Tehran, the Minister of Intelligence of the Iranian terrorist regime, Ismail Khatib, was killed overnight.
Khatib was appointed as Minister of Information by Ali Khamenei in 2021. He was in charge of the Iranian Ministry of Information, a central intelligence body of the Iranian terrorist regime, which functioned as one of the regime’s primary mechanisms of repression and terror.
The Department has advanced intelligence capabilities and serves as a central arm in the surveillance, espionage, and execution of covert operations worldwide, particularly against the State of Israel and Iranian citizens.
As Minister of Information Khatib played an important role in directing the arrests and killings of protesters during the recent internal protests in Iran. Similarly, it acted against Iranian citizens in the context of the headscarf protests in 2022-2023.
Alongside his activities against the State of Israel, Khatib led the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence’s terrorist operations against Israeli and US targets worldwide, including targets within the territory of the State of Israel during Operation Raining Lion.
Khatib previously held several central roles in the Revolutionary Guards, primarily in intelligence areas, where he served as an important knowledge center.
The killing of Khatib adds to dozens of senior Iranian terrorist regime commanders, including senior officials in the Ministry of Intelligence who were killed throughout the operation, further deepening the damage to the terrorist regime’s command and control systems.
The IDF will continue to operate vigorously to strike the commanders and leaders of the Iranian terrorist regime.”
