Next one down: IDF takes out Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib in precise strike
After Oct 7, Khatib praised Hamas's actions, predicting it would cause 'serious strategic change'
The Israeli Air Force struck and killed the Iranian terrorist regime Minister of Intelligence, Esmaeil Khatib, in a precise overnight strike in the capital, Tehran, the IDF announced Wednesday.
The Israeli announcement was later confirmed by Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, who said the “cowardly assassination” of Khatib “left us in deep mourning.”
The president, who has reportedly been largely sidelined within the regime, added his “condolences to the great people of Iran,” saying he was certain “their path will continue more steadfastly than before.”
Khatib was a veteran senior official in the regime, having served as intelligence chief since 2021. The IDF said he led the regime’s “primary intelligence organization, which also played a key role in supporting the regime’s repression and terrorist activities.”
🔴ELIMINATED: Esmaeil Khatib, the Iranian terrorist regime Minister of Intelligence, in a targeted strike in Tehran.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 18, 2026
Khatib played a significant role during the recent protests throughout Iran, including the arrest & killing of protestors and led terrorist activities against… pic.twitter.com/654lpYCZ1c
The ministry “possesses advanced intelligence capabilities, overseeing surveillance, espionage, and the execution of covert operations worldwide, particularly against the State of Israel and Iranian citizens,” the Israeli military added.
Jason Brodsky, policy director at the UANI think tank, said Khatib was “one of the most repressive actors in the Islamic Republic, responsible for teams engaging in cyberattacks, plotting assassinations, and repressing the people of Iran.”
“He also presided over spectacular intelligence failures but managed to keep his job. Khatib had wide-ranging experience, at IRGC terrorists intelligence, heading the Office of Supreme Leader Protection Organization, the Judiciary's Protection Organization, and head of security at [the religious trust] Astan Quds Razavi.”
The IDF also said Khatib had held various key roles in the IRGC, serving “as a significant source of knowledge.”
Today during his appearance before parliament as it considers Pezeshkian's cabinet nominees, #Iran's regime's intelligence minister Esmail Khatib claimed it has identified "Mossad spies in 28 countries." This is coming from the same man who boasted days before Ismail Haniyeh's… pic.twitter.com/HXaGAmgRcD
— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) August 18, 2024
He had a leading role in suppressing Iranian citizens during the Mahsa Amini protests (2022–2023), and led terror activities “against Israeli and American targets around the world, as well as activities directed against targets within Israel during Operation Roaring Lion.”
According to Israel’s Channel 12 News, citing IDF sources, the strike that killed Khatib was made possible by real-time intelligence received during an Israeli Air Force sortie.
Fighter jets already on the way to other targets were diverted when the military received precise intelligence pinpointing his position, enabling a precise strike that killed Khatib in a safe apartment in Tehran.
“His elimination joins dozens of other eliminations of senior commanders of the Iranian terrorist regime throughout the operation, including senior figures in the Ministry of Intelligence, and significantly degrades the regime’s command and control structures,” the IDF said.
Khatib’s death deprives the regime of another senior, long-serving, and key leader. According to UANI, he had a close relationship with former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, dating back to his days as a student in the seminary at Qom, where he learned at the feet of disciples of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, including Khamenei.
He eventually attained the middle rank of “hojjat al-islam.” In 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department designated Khatib for engaging in malicious cyber activities over his leading role in the ministry’s “networks of cyber threat actors involved in cyber espionage and ransomware attacks.”
The U.S. sanctioned him again for indirect involvement in the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman in the custody of Iran's Morality Police.
After the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Isrsel by the Hamas terrorist organization, Khatib praised the group’s operation as “the most complex, intelligent, brave, and effective operation of the resistance front,” describing it as “deadly, irreparable for the Zionist regime” and predicting that it would cause “a serious strategic change in the regional and global equations.”
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
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