Israel Kills Iranian Mastermind Behind Oct 7 Attack

An Israeli airstrike in Iran killed Saeed Izadi, the head of the Palestine Corps in the IRGC Quds Force, who funded and armed Hamas ahead of the terror group’s October 7 onslaught as part of a multi-front plan to destroy Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said Saturday.

Izadi was “one of the architects” of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, “and among the few who knew of it prior to its execution,” the IDF said.

The military said he was killed overnight in a safe house in the Iranian city of Qom “following a prolonged intelligence effort.”

Izadi, as commander of the Palestine Corps in Quds Force — the extraterritorial arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — was responsible for military coordination between senior leaders in the IRGC and the Iranian regime and key figures in Hamas, especially ahead of October 7 and during the war, the IDF said.

“Izadi facilitated increased financial support from Iran to Hamas for terror activities against the State of Israel and maintained direct contact with Palestinian terror organizations,” both in Gaza and the West Bank, the army said.

The IDF said that Izadi was responsible for directing Hamas forces in Lebanon during the war, and “he made it his mission to rebuild Hamas’s military wing and ensure the group remained the ruling power in Gaza.”

According to the IDF, Izadi was “one of the founders and leading figures behind the Iranian regime’s plan to destroy Israel.”

That plan, according to the IDF, “aimed to launch a multi-front attack on Israel in two phases.”

“First, a missile and rocket barrage by the regime and its proxies across the Middle East. Second, a mass invasion of Israeli territory by tens of thousands of terrorists from Lebanon, Gaza, Syria, and Judea and Samaria,” the army said, using the Biblical term for the West Bank.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said the killing of Izadi was “one of the key moments in the multi-front war and makes the entire Middle East safer.”

“Saeed Izadi was one of the confidants involved in planning and executing the October 7 massacre, and on his hands is the blood of thousands of Israelis,” Zamir said during an assessment, in remarks provided by the IDF.

“He led the Iran-Hamas axis and was a confidant of Sinwar and Deif,” Zamir said, referring to the killed leaders of Hamas.

“This is a tremendous intelligence and operational achievement by the Intelligence Directorate and the Air Force,” he said, adding that “there are no more cities of refuge in the Middle East.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Izadi “funded and armed Hamas ahead of the October 7 massacre.”

“A huge achievement for Israeli intelligence and the Israeli Air Force. Justice for the murdered and the hostages. Israel’s long arm will reach all its enemies,” Katz said.

Earlier this year, Katz revealed an intelligence document showing that then-Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Muhammad Deif had sent a letter to Iran’s IRGC Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani in June 2021, seeking support for the terror group’s plans to invade Israel, which were ultimately carried out on October 7, 2023.

“In the document, they (the Hamas leaders) ask the commander of the [Islamic] Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force to transfer $500 million for destroying the State of Israel,” Katz said.

Izadi “accepted the request and replied to them that Iran, despite its difficult economic situation and the plight of the Iranian population, will continue to funnel money to Hamas, because the struggle against Israel and the US is the top priority of the Iranian regime,” Katz said at the time.

2nd commander killed, wanted since 2009

In a separate overnight airstrike, Behnam Shahriyari, a senior IRGC Quds Force official, was killed in western Iran, the military said Saturday morning, noting that he was targeted in a strike while driving in a car, more than 1,000 kilometers from Israel.

Shahriyari headed the Quds Force’s Unit 190, which is responsible for the clandestine transfer of weapons to Iran’s proxy groups, especially Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Palestinian terror groups in Gaza, and the Houthis in Yemen.

Israel has been seeking to target Shahriyari since 2009, and the military said his killing was a “severe blow to the ability of the terror organizations surrounding the State of Israel to rearm after having suffered heavy losses at the hands of the IDF during the war.”

The army said that Shahriyari was responsible for all transfers of weaponry from the Iranian regime to its proxies across the Middle East.

The Iranian official “worked for years to arm various terror organizations in order to directly advance the Iranian regime’s plan of destroying the State of Israel,” the IDF said.

“Shahriyari worked directly with the Hezbollah and Hamas terror organizations, as well as with the Houthi regime and other groups, thereby supplying numerous missiles and rockets that were fired at Israeli territory during the war,” the statement continued.

In addition to supplying weapons, the IDF said Shahriyari played a key role in financing terror, overseeing the annual transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars to terror organizations.

The military said Shahriyari used “his unique connections” in Turkey and Lebanon to funnel the money through a network of front companies, currency exchanges, and money couriers.

IRGC air force’s drone unit head killed

Additionally, the commander of the IRGC air force’s drone unit was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday, the IDF said.

Aminpour Joudaki had been the commander of the 2nd UAV Regiment of the IRGC Aerospace Force, and “assumed a key role” in the drone unit following the elimination of the unit’s commander, Mohammad-Bagher Taherpour, on June 13, the military said.

“As part of his role, Aminpour Joudaki advanced hundreds of UAV attacks against Israeli territory from the area of Ahvaz in southwestern Iran,” the military said.

Israel says its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program is necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.

Iran has retaliated by launching over 470 ballistic missiles and around 1,000 drones at Israel.

So far, Iran’s missile attacks have killed 24 people and wounded thousands in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals. Some of the missiles have hit apartment buildings, causing heavy damage.