Israel announced Wednesday it had killed Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, the second elimination of a top Iranian leadership figure in as many days, and revealed that the Israeli military had been given blanket authorisation to target any senior Iranian official without requiring additional political approval.
Esmail Khatib © IRNA
Israel announced Wednesday it had killed Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, the second elimination of a top Iranian leadership figure in as many days, and revealed that the Israeli military had been given blanket authorisation to target any senior Iranian official without requiring additional political approval.
"No one in Iran has immunity and everyone is in the crosshairs," declared Defense Minister Israel Katz. "The Prime Minister and I have authorised the IDF to target any senior Iranian official for whom an intelligence and operational opportunity arises — without the need for additional approval."
It marks the first time Israel has publicly stated it would allow the military to independently pursue enemy officials at the highest levels, a doctrinal shift with profound implications for the war's trajectory.
Khatib's elimination follows the killing of powerful security chief Ali Larijani on Tuesday, itself the highest-profile targeted killing since Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed on the war's opening day, February 28. Iran's leadership is being systematically dismantled.
In Tehran, thousands took to the streets for Larijani's funeral, waving Iranian flags and carrying portraits of slain officials as crowds chanted tributes to the dead.
Iran fired missiles with multiple warheads at Israel in retaliation for Larijani's killing, with Israeli authorities reporting two people killed near Tel Aviv. Tehran confirmed overnight strikes on Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba in Israel, and simultaneous attacks on US bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Israel simultaneously struck central Beirut, destroying apartment buildings in some of the most intense airstrikes on the Lebanese capital in decades, as the war on Lebanon's Hezbollah front intensifies in parallel with the campaign against Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi dismissed the impact of the killings, insisting the Islamic Republic was "a robust political system that did not depend on any single individual."
It is a claim Tehran will need to keep making - because Israel shows no sign of stopping the test.
The IDF has its orders. The list has no end.
Lebanon and Israel have agreed a shortlist of countries that could send troops to verify the disarmament of Hezbollah under a U.S.-brokered agreement, a Lebanese official said on Friday, with the United States due to pick countries from the list.
Saudi Arabia expects imminent coordinated attacks from Iraqi militias north of the Gulf state and from Yemen's Houthis from the south under the supervision of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a senior Saudi official said.
An Iranian parliamentary committee is reviewing a preliminary bill that would bar U.S., Israeli and other "hostile" vessels from transiting the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing a lawmaker.
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