Israel Kills Majid Khademi (Intel Chief of Revolutionary Guards in Iran) – Lebanon
Noriko Watanabe, Hiroshi Saito, and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Donald Trump of the United States continue to intensify their coordinated military pressure against Iran. Alongside sustained strikes, Israel has expanded a campaign of targeted killings against senior Iranian figures — reaching from the upper echelons of power, including Ali Khamenei, to more recent figures such as Majid Khademi, the Intelligence Chief of the Revolutionary Guards.
The latest elimination of a high-ranking figure reinforces the perception that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) retains the capability to penetrate and dismantle Iran’s theocratic, political, military, and intelligence hierarchy with striking precision. This, in turn, exposes a stark imbalance: while Iran’s internal security apparatus exerts formidable control over its own population, it appears far less capable of shielding its leadership from external reach.
According to reporting by The New York Times, “Israel has killed a number of Iran’s most senior officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the former supreme leader, and Ali Larijani, a top national security official who had effectively been running Iran.” This assessment underscores the depth and strategic intent behind Israel’s campaign.
Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, has made the policy explicit, vowing that operations will persist. His stark declaration — that Israel would “hunt them down, one by one” — signals a doctrine of sustained decapitation targeting within Iran’s ruling structure. The fact that Khademi’s predecessor was also eliminated further suggests that no position within Iran’s power architecture is insulated under current conditions.
Additional reporting from The Jerusalem Post notes that numerous senior officials within the Revolutionary Guards and Iran’s Intelligence Ministry were assassinated in late February and the weeks that followed, even as some — like Khademi — temporarily evaded earlier attempts.
Beyond Iran itself, Israel is widening its operational scope in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah, widely regarded as Iran’s most powerful regional proxy. Strategic infrastructure, including bridges over the Litani River — allegedly used for logistical and military movement — has been targeted, reflecting a blunt operational doctrine: where missile threats endure, normal civilian life cannot.
Israel’s objective remains the creation of a secure buffer zone to protect its northern communities. Yet while Beirut condemns these incursions, the deeper structural crisis lies within Lebanon itself – where Hezbollah (an armed non-state actor) continues to operate beyond full governmental authority. Despite official pledges in Lebanon to assert control, Hezbollah has shown no willingness to disarm.
For Lebanon, already weakened by economic collapse and institutional erosion, continued entanglement in the broader confrontation between Washington, Tel Aviv, and Tehran is increasingly untenable. Its fragile sectarian equilibrium demands cohesion and restraint — not unilateral military engagements tied to external strategic agendas.
Ultimately, Lebanon’s future must be determined by its own people rather than shaped as an extension of Iranian regional ambitions. Hezbollah now faces a decisive juncture: integrate into the national framework and contribute to stabilizing a faltering state, or persist along a trajectory that risks perpetual instability.
In parallel, Israel’s broader strategic aim is becoming ever clearer—systematically degrading Iran’s leadership networks while constraining and diminishing its regional proxies, from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip.
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