The Man Who Knew Everything: Israel Kills Iran's IRGC Intelligence Chief Majid Khademi

Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi — head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards intelligence organization and the man responsible for shaping every intelligence assessment Iran's war cabinet received — was killed in a US-Israeli airstrike in Tehran at dawn on April 6, 2026. He is at least the fourth senior IRGC commander eliminated since the war began. Iran has promised "much more devastating" retaliation. A 45-day ceasefire proposal is simultaneously on the table.

What Happened

At dawn on Monday, April 6, Israeli Air Force jets — acting on what the IDF described as "precise intelligence guidance from the Military Intelligence Directorate" — struck a location in Tehran and killed Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, the head of the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The IRGC confirmed his death in a statement on its official Telegram channel: "Major General Majid Khademi, the powerful and educated head of the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was martyred in the criminal terrorist attack by the American-Zionist enemy... at dawn today."

Iranian state media reported the death, and funeral arrangements were said to be forthcoming. Neither the IDF nor the US Department of Defense immediately specified the exact strike location within Tehran, but the IDF said the operation was a joint one, consistent with the war's operational pattern of combined US-Israeli targeting packages.

Israel's defense minister Israel Katz confirmed the killing separately, as part of an announcement alongside a new strike on the South Pars petrochemical complex at Asaluyeh — Iran's largest such facility, responsible for approximately 50% of Iranian petrochemical production.

Who Was Majid Khademi

Khademi was not a peripheral figure. He held two doctorates — in National Security and in Strategic Defense Sciences — and had spent decades rising through Iran's opaque intelligence and security apparatus, which typically makes careers invisible to outsiders by design.

His public-facing career began to emerge in 2018, when he was appointed head of the Information Protection Organization of the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Support — a sensitive counter-intelligence position charged with protecting state secrets from foreign penetration. He served in that role until 2022.

In June 2022, he was appointed head of the Intelligence Protection Organization of the IRGC — itself a significant position, responsible for internal surveillance of IRGC personnel and counter-espionage operations against foreign intelligence agencies attempting to penetrate the Guards.

Then in June 2025, following the Israeli assassination of his predecessor Mohammad Kazemi during the "Twelve-Day War," Khademi stepped into the top intelligence role: head of the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He held both posts simultaneously from that point — meaning he ran both the IRGC's external intelligence operations and its internal counter-espionage arm.

Reuters described the IRGC intelligence arm as "one of Iran's most powerful security bodies, with a central role in domestic surveillance to counter foreign influence, and often operating in parallel with the civilian intelligence ministry." In wartime, it would have been responsible for shaping intelligence assessments delivered to supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei and the war cabinet — assessments about US military intentions, missile targeting, and ceasefire negotiations.

The Pattern: Decapitation at Scale

Khademi's death continues a systematic US-Israeli campaign to eliminate IRGC leadership that has accelerated since the war began on February 28, when American warplanes killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei himself.

According to UPI and the IDF's own statements, Khademi joins at least three other senior IRGC commanders eliminated since the war started:

• Alireza Tangsiri — IRGC Navy Commander, the officer directly responsible for Iran's Strait of Hormuz blockade.
• Gholamreza Soleimani — Head of the Basij paramilitary force, the domestic militia arm of the IRGC with an estimated 600,000 members.
• Mohammad Pakpour — IRGC Commander-in-Chief, the operational head of the entire Revolutionary Guard ground forces.

The IDF stated that Khademi's killing "constitutes another severe blow to the IRGC's command-and-control systems and its ability to direct terrorist activity against the State of Israel and countries around the world."

Khademi himself was the second consecutive IRGC intelligence chief to be killed by Israeli strikes — his predecessor Kazemi was assassinated in June 2025. The IRGC intelligence organization has now lost two consecutive leaders to Israeli airstrikes in under a year.

The Timing: Killing During Ceasefire Talks

The strike came on one of the most diplomatically active days of the war. Just hours before Khademi's death was confirmed, Axios reported that US, Iranian, and regional mediators were actively discussing a potential 45-day ceasefire. The Associated Press confirmed the outlines: Egyptian, Pakistani, and Turkish mediators sent a joint plan to both Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff late Sunday night, calling for a 45-day pause and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

A senior Iranian official confirmed to Reuters that Tehran had received the proposal and was reviewing it. But Iran simultaneously made clear it would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for merely a "temporary ceasefire," and that the US was "not ready for a permanent ceasefire."

The killing of Iran's top military intelligence officer — on the same morning that a ceasefire proposal was circulating — adds a significant complication to any diplomatic track. Iran's military command has already warned of "much more devastating and widespread" retaliation if US forces strike civilian targets. Trump's self-imposed deadline for Iran to reopen Hormuz expires Tuesday at 8 PM Eastern Time — with Trump threatening to hit Iran's power plants and bridges if no deal is reached.

European Council President António Costa issued a statement Monday calling any targeting of civilian infrastructure "illegal and unacceptable."

What It Means for the War

The killing of an intelligence chief during active ceasefire negotiations follows a pattern seen throughout the war: escalatory military strikes and diplomatic outreach running simultaneously, often at cross-purposes.

Analysts note that losing the head of its intelligence organization means Iran loses not just an individual but institutional memory — the accumulated knowledge of penetration operations, foreign spy networks, military targeting data, and counter-surveillance methods built over decades. Replacing Khademi, as with his predecessor, will take time and could degrade the quality of intelligence assessments reaching Iran's war cabinet during one of the most critical decision windows of the conflict.

For Israel, the strike fits a stated strategy. The IDF has framed the elimination of IRGC leadership as degrading "command-and-control systems" — the nerve centers that coordinate Iran's missile campaigns, Gulf proxy operations, Hezbollah support networks, and the Hormuz blockade itself.

For the US, the operation deepens the question of whether Washington and Tel Aviv are pursuing the same endgame. Trump has at times signaled an interest in a negotiated exit. Israel's simultaneous strike on both Khademi and the South Pars petrochemical complex — Iran's largest, responsible for half of national petrochemical output — suggests Jerusalem is not slowing down.

What Happens Next

Iran has vowed "much more devastating" retaliation. The 45-day ceasefire proposal remains unanswered by both sides as of Monday morning. Trump's Tuesday power-plant deadline stands. Brent crude opened Monday at $109/barrel — roughly 50% above pre-war levels. Kuwait, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia all activated air defenses to intercept Iranian missiles and drones on Monday morning. Four people were found dead in Haifa after an Iranian missile struck a residential building.

The IDF says it will continue hunting IRGC commanders "one by one." Khademi's death removes one of the few figures who understood both what Iran knows about its adversaries and what Iran doesn't know — the latter being as valuable in wartime as the former. Whether removing him makes Iran's decision-making more reckless or more manageable in the next 48 hours is the central question that diplomats on three continents cannot yet answer.