Israel has killed an October 7 mastermind and struck a nuclear site in its latest wave of strikes against Iran, a day after Tehran said it would not negotiate over its nuclear programme while under threat and Europe tried to keep peace talks alive.
The state warned the conflict will be prolonged as US President Donald Trump said Iran could launch a nuclear war in just ‘weeks’ due to its nuclear capabilities.
Saeed Izadi, who led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ overseas arm, was killed in a strike in an apartment in the Iranian city of Qom, said Israeli Defense 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.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, he said: ‘It is a tremendous amount of material, and I think within a matter of weeks or certainly within a matter of months, they will be able to have a nuclear weapon, and we can’t let that happen.’
Israel said on Saturday it had also hit a nuclear enrichment site in Isfahan, Iran for the second time since strikes began.
It comes after a 5.1-magnitude earthquake hit northern Iran today as Israel pounded the country with repeated waves of air strikes.
The quake struck at a depth of six miles, some 23 miles southwest of the city of Semnan, the USGS said, the US Geological Survey said.
State television said the earthquake measured 5.5 and ‘shook the area around the city of Sorkheh in Semnan province’.
It said the tremor was also felt in the capital Tehran, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) from Sorkheh. Official news agency IRNA reported no casualties and only ‘minimal damage’.
