TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Saturday, June 21, 2025, that the Israeli Air Force had targeted a commander in the overseas wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in an attack on an apartment block in the city of Qom, Iran.
The attack killed Saeed Izadi, the head of the Palestine Corps of the Iran Quds Force.
According to a statement reported by the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth as cited by Anadolu, Katz accused Izadi of being responsible for funding and arming the Palestinian group Hamas in preparation for an attack on October 7, 2023.
He described the killing of Izadi as a "great achievement for Israeli intelligence and the air force." Izadi was under sanctions from the United States and the United Kingdom for his alleged ties to Hamas, and the Palestinian militant faction Islamic Jihad, which also took part in the October 7 attack.
The Israeli military, as reported by The National, then said that they had killed a second commander from the IRGC's overseas branch, referred to as Benham Shariyari, in an attack on his vehicle during the night in western Tehran.
Shariyari was said to be "responsible for all weapons transfers from the Iranian regime to its proxies across the Middle East." There has been no confirmation from the IRGC regarding the killing of these two commanders.
The Quds Force has built a network of Arab allies known as the Axis of Resistance, establishing Hezbollah in Lebanon in 1982, and supporting the Palestinian fighter group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
However, this pro-Iranian network has suffered significant blows in the past two years, as Israeli attacks since the Hamas assault on October 7, 2023, have weakened the Palestinian groups and Hezbollah.
Last Friday, Israel launched a large-scale campaign of air strikes and covert operations, including drone operations supported by Mossad, against military and nuclear sites in Iran.
These attacks have killed senior IRGC commanders and nuclear scientists, and damaged nuclear sites such as Natanz and Isfahan. Israel claimed that these large-scale attacks were necessary to prevent Tehran from getting closer to acquiring nuclear weapons.
At least 657 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran, and more than 2,000 injured, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group.
Iran has retaliated by firing 450 missiles and 1,000 drones towards Israel, according to Israeli military estimates. While most have been shot down by Israeli air defenses, at least 24 people in Israel have been killed and hundreds more have been injured.
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