Jerusalem – February 2026 In a historic announcement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that the Israeli Air Force, acting on precise intelligence, struck and eliminated Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the Tehran area on Saturday. The operation marks the final blow in a sustained campaign to dismantle the senior leadership of the Iranian-led “Axis of Terror.”
The IDF stated that Khamenei’s elimination completes the targeted removal of the top echelons of Iran’s proxy network, including:
- Hassan Nasrallah (Hezbollah Secretary-General) and most of Hezbollah’s senior command
- Yahya Sinwar (Hamas leader in Gaza)
- Mohammed Deif (Hamas military chief) and most of Hamas’s military leadership
- Muhammad al-Ghamari (Houthi Chief of General Staff)
- Senior IRGC and Iranian Armed Forces commanders: Gholam Ali Rashid, Mohammad Bagheri, Hossein Salami, and others
These leaders, according to the IDF, orchestrated the October 7, 2023, massacre and decades of terror attacks against Israel and its citizens. The strikes were carried out under Operations “Rising Lion” and “Northern Arrows,” relying on advanced intelligence and precision munitions to minimize collateral damage.
The IDF described the campaign as a decisive degradation of the Iranian terror axis, stating: “Their elimination significantly degrades the Iranian terror axis and has made the Middle East a safer place for the State of Israel and the entire world.”