Israel says it killed top Iran commander during attacks by both sides
A missile launched from Iran is intercepted as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, on June 21, 2025.
Amir Cohen | Reuters
Israel said on Saturday it had killed a veteran Iranian commander during attacks by both sides in the more than week-long air war, while Tehran said it would not negotiate over its nuclear program while under threat.
Saeed Izadi, who led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ overseas arm, was killed in a strike on an apartment in the Iranian city of Qom, said Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz.
Calling his killing a “major achievement for Israeli intelligence and the Air Force”, Katz said in a statement that Izadi had financed and armed the Palestinian militant group Hamas ahead of its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.
The Revolutionary Guards said five of its members died in attacks on Khorramabad, according to Iranian media. They did not mention Izadi, who was on U.S. and British sanctions lists.
Iranian media said earlier on Saturday that Israel had attacked a building in Qom, with initial reports of a 16-year-old killed and two people injured.
The flag of Iran and other national flags are seen in front of the German Mission to the UN, as foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3 countries, will meet with an Iranian delegation for talks about Iran’s nuclear program on June 20, 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Sedat Suna | Getty Images News | Getty Images
At least 430 people have been killed and 3,500 injured in Iran since Israel began its attacks on June 13, Iranian state-run Nour News said, citing the health ministry.
In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed by Iranian missile attacks, according to local authorities, in the worst conflict between the longtime enemies.
Israel says Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, while Iran says its atomic programme is only for peaceful purposes.
Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons, which it neither confirms nor denies.
Iran: No talks during attacks
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Israel’s aggression, which he said had indications of U.S. involvement, should stop so Iran can “come back to diplomacy.”
“It is obvious that I can’t go to negotiations with the U.S. when our people are under bombardments under the support of the U.S,” he told reporters in Istanbul where he was attending a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
On Friday in Geneva, Araqchi met European foreign ministers who were seeking a path back to diplomacy.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he would take up to two weeks to decide whether the United States should enter the conflict on Israel’s side, enough time “to see whether or not people come to their senses,” he said.
He said on Friday he thought Iran would be able to have a nuclear weapon “within a matter of weeks, or certainly within a matter of months,” adding: “We can’t let that happen.”
Iran’s Fars news agency said Israel had targeted the Isfahan nuclear facility, one of the nation’s biggest, but there was no leakage of hazardous materials. Israel said it had launched a wave of attacks against missile storage and launch infrastructure sites.
Ambassador Dorothy Camille Shea, Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of the United States, speaks during a UN Security Council meeting on threats to international peace and security at the United Nations headquarters on June 20, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Ali Shamkhani, a close ally of Iran’s supreme leader, said he had survived an Israeli attack. “It was my fate to stay with a wounded body, so I stay to continue to be the reason for the enemy’s hostility,” he said in a message carried by state media.
Interceptions over Tel Aviv
Early on Saturday, the Israeli military warned of an incoming barrage from Iran, triggering air raid sirens across parts of central Israel and in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Interceptions were visible in the sky over Tel Aviv, with explosions echoing as Israel’s air defense systems responded. There were no reports of casualties.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a U.S.-based rights organization that tracks Iran, gave a higher death toll than Tehran, saying Israeli attacks have killed 639 people there.
Those killed in Iran include the military’s top echelon and nuclear scientists. Israel said it also killed a second commander of the Guards’ overseas arm, whom it identified as Benham Shariyari, during an overnight strike.
Nour News on Saturday named 15 air defense officers and soldiers it said had been killed in the conflict with Israel.
Iran’s health minister, Mohammadreza Zafarqandi, said Israel has attacked three hospitals during the conflict, killing two health workers and a child,…
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