Israeli military says killed Iran's Hamas coordinator

TDT | Manama

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Israel's military said Saturday it had killed a top Iranian commander in charge of military coordination with Palestinian militant group Hamas in a strike on Qom, south of Tehran.

Israeli "fighter jets struck and eliminated in the area of Qom the commander of the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, and the key coordinator between the Iranian regime and the Hamas terrorist organisation, Saeed Izadi", the military said in a statement.

The Quds Force is the foreign operations arm of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Izadi, who is under US and British sanctions, was described by the Israeli military as "one of the main orchestrators of the October 7th massacre and one of the few people who knew about it in advance".

Iran has repeatedly rejected accusations that it was involved in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.

Izadi "was responsible for military coordination between the senior commanders of the IRGC and the Iranian regime with key figures in the Hamas terrorist organisation," the Israeli military said.

The Israeli military added that he had directed Hamas forces operating from Lebanon, and helped Hamas rebuild its armed wing in Gaza.

A military official told reporters during a briefing Saturday that Israel had killed two other Iranian commanders overnight, Behnam Shahriyari and Aminpour Judaki.

Shahriyari was the head of Unit 190 in Iran's Quds Force, whose goal was to "annihilate Israel", the official said.

"What Izadi was for Hamas, Shahriyari was for Hezbollah," the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that he "was responsible for transferring funds to these terror organisations who aimed to destroy Israel".

Judaki was in charge of the drone unit in the IRGC, said the official, adding that he was "responsible for hundreds of UAV attacks against Israel".

Iran did not confirm the deaths of its three commanders, nor their role in its military organisation.

Fighting between the two foes began last week when Israel launched a massive wave of strikes on Iran, arguing that Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons.

The Israeli military campaign has combined targeted assassinations of key Iranian military personnel, destruction of Iran's air defences and repeated strikes on nuclear sites.

The death toll in Israel from retaliatory Iranian missile strikes since June 13 is 25 people, according to authorities.

Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians, but the toll has not been updated since.