Israel Orders Intensified Strikes on Iran, Kills Top Terror Commanders in Gaza and Lebanon
Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, has directed the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to step up military operations against regime targets in Tehran, Iran’s capital.
Katz, who gave the directive during a security assessment with the IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, and other top officers on Thursday, said the fresh attacks are aimed at destabilising the Iranian regime in response to recent missile attacks on Israel’s home front.
“We must strike all symbols of the regime and its instruments of oppression, such as the Basij, as well as the core of its power, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” he said.
He added that forcing a mass evacuation from Tehran would pile pressure on the regime and serve as a strong deterrent. According to him, the IDF will continue targeting nuclear facilities and scientists until all operational goals are achieved.
In a related development, the IDF confirmed the killing of a top commander of the Mujahideen Brigades, Ali Saadi Wasfi al-Agha, in an airstrike carried out earlier in the week in central Gaza.
Al-Agha was reportedly responsible for burying the bodies of two Israeli hostages — Gadi Haggai and Judih Weinstein — whose remains were recently recovered from his home in Khan Younis. He also led the group’s southern Gaza unit and was expected to replace its late leader, Asaad Abu Sharia, who was killed in an earlier strike.
The military said Al-Agha had coordinated abductions, killings, and terror operations under Iranian guidance across Gaza, the West Bank, and parts of Israel.
This week alone, the IDF says it has struck no fewer than 300 terror-related targets in Gaza, including militants, weapons depots, rocket and sniper launch sites, and operational buildings.
In Iran, fresh air raids carried out by the Israeli Air Force reportedly hit the country’s Internal Security headquarters as well as facilities belonging to Iran’s special internal security unit. The targets, according to the IDF, are key organs of the Iranian regime’s enforcement machinery.
Amid the ongoing tensions, the Israeli military also disclosed that a new air defence interceptor was used for the first time to shoot down an Iranian drone. The Barak system — believed to be part of the Navy’s Sa’ar 6-class ships — successfully downed one of five drones launched from Iran.
In Lebanon, the IDF announced the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander, Mohammed Khader al-Husseini, in a drone strike near Tyre. Husseini, who headed Hezbollah’s firepower unit in the Litani River area, was said to be behind multiple rocket attacks on northern Israel, including strikes on Haifa and Nahariya.
The military also accused him of attempting to rebuild Hezbollah’s rocket artillery in breach of the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.
