Israel says it kills Iran intelligence minister Esmail Khatib, third top security figure targeted in two days, delegated strike authority narrows the gap between identification and assassination

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euronews.com

Israel says it has killed Iran’s intelligence minister Esmail Khatib, a claim that would mark the third senior security figure targeted in roughly two days as the war widens beyond missile exchanges into leadership strikes. Euronews reports Israel previously announced the killing of Ali Larijani, described as a powerful Iranian security official, and Gholam Reza Soleimani, head of the Basij paramilitary force.

The sequencing matters because Iran’s security state is not a single chain of command. Power is distributed across formal ministries, the Revolutionary Guard, parallel intelligence structures, and patronage networks tied to the clerical establishment. Removing individuals at the top does not automatically remove capacity; it often shifts it. When senior posts become short-lived, the safest strategy for subordinates is to prioritise loyalty and risk-avoidance over competence, and to keep decisions tightly held inside smaller circles.

Euronews also reports Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz saying the military has been authorised to eliminate any senior Iranian official once “the intelligence and operational circle has been closed,” without further approval. That kind of delegation signals confidence in targeting but also lowers the political friction for additional strikes, making escalation easier to sustain.

Iran’s response, according to Euronews, included fresh barrages early Wednesday, including the use of “advanced multiple warhead missiles” aimed at central Israel, and attacks that Gulf states said they intercepted. Iraq was also hit, with the US embassy compound sustaining a direct strike, Euronews reports. Brent crude trading above $100 a barrel is the immediate transmission mechanism: the market is pricing not only physical disruption but also the probability that command-and-control errors, misreads, or “use it or lose it” decisions could pull more actors into the fight.

Decapitation campaigns test whether an organisation can replace leaders faster than it loses coherence. If Israel’s claim about Khatib is confirmed, Iran’s security apparatus will be forced to prove that its redundancy is real rather than bureaucratic.

In Tel Aviv and Tehran, the most concrete change is procedural: Israel says it no longer needs an extra approval step to kill the next senior official.