IDF confirms overnight strike in Iran killed IRGC Palestinian Division chief, says he was Oct. 7 architect

The IDF confirms killing Saeed Izadi, head of the Palestinian Division in the IRGC Quds Force, in an overnight airstrike in the Iranian city of Qom.

“Izadi was eliminated in a safe house in the heart of Iran, following a prolonged intelligence effort,” the IDF says.

The IDF says Izadi was responsible for “military coordination between senior commanders in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian regime, and key figures in the Hamas terror organization,” especially ahead of the October 7 onslaught and during the war.

“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 says.

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

“During the war, he was responsible for directing Hamas forces in Lebanon… [and] he made it his mission to rebuild Hamas’s military wing and ensure the group remained the ruling power in Gaza,” the statement continues.

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

The 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 (West Bank).”