The Israeli military killed the man who was both Iran’s top national security official and its de facto ruler during the war, Iran and Israel said on Tuesday, dealing another severe blow to a regime that has been hammered by nearly three weeks of punishing U.S.-Israeli strikes.
The killing of the official, Ali Larijani, removes one of Iran’s most prominent voices of defiance and underscores Israel’s ability to target Iran’s most senior military and political figures. The Israeli military also killed the head of the Basij, a powerful Iranian paramilitary force, Israel and Iran said.
Israel announced their deaths on the same day that Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, became the first senior member of the Trump administration to quit over the war with Iran.
In a letter to President Trump, which he posted on social media, Mr. Kent argued that Israeli officials and the American news media had deployed a “misinformation campaign” that had undermined Mr. Trump’s “America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.” His resignation widened a growing rift within Mr. Trump’s political movement over the war and, more broadly, over Israel and its role in American foreign policy.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Mr. Kent wrote. “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
Mr. Larijani, 67, a former speaker of the Iranian Parliament and the head of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, had helped Iran prepare for war and was a close confidant of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader who was killed in an Israeli airstrike at the start of the bombing campaign on Feb. 28.
Despite his stature within the regime, he was seen as an influential pragmatist with the clout to negotiate with the United States. His death could embolden Iranian hard-liners who believe that the Islamic republic can survive only by reinforcing its repressive rule.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it had also killed Brig. Gen. Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of the Basij, a large paramilitary force deployed by the Iranian authorities to enforce security and violently suppress dissent.
Fars, an Iranian news agency, later posted a statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards confirming that General Soleimani had been killed.
Iranian state media also confirmed that Mr. Larijani had been killed and called him a martyr. A funeral procession for Mr. Larijani will be held on Wednesday, Fars reported, along with a funeral for Iranian naval officers who were killed when their frigate was torpedoed by an American submarine off Sri Lanka.
Mr. Larijani’s death immediately heightened anxiety within Iran about the direction of the war and the country’s future, according to two Iranian officials. He was among a group of officials whom Ayatollah Khamenei had asked to devise a plan to ensure the Islamic republic would survive if he were assassinated, according to senior Iranian officials.
Mr. Larijani was in charge of putting down the recent protests that had called for the end of Islamic rule, deploying lethal force to crush the demonstrations. And he was a key liaison with Russia and other Iranian allies, as well as with other countries in the region, including Qatar and Oman.
Recently, he had been moving frequently between hide-outs, according to two Israeli military officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details.
Shortly after Israel’s intelligence services pinpointed Mr. Larijani’s latest hide-out, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, ordered Israeli Air Force pilots to take off for Iran, the officials said. Roughly two and a half hours later, the location in Tehran was in flames, they said.
A senior Iranian official described the mood among officials as one of shock and anxiety that Israel would not stop until all of Iran’s leaders were dead and the Islamic republic toppled.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel expressed hope that Mr. Larijani’s death could help Iranians overthrow their government. “It will not happen all at once, and it will not be easy,” he said in a statement. “But if we persist, we will give them the chance to take their fate into their own hands.”
Ellie Geranmayeh, an Iran expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the killing of Mr. Larijani suggested that Mr. Netanyahu may be trying to block Mr. Trump’s ability to find a negotiated settlement to end the war with Iran.
“Larijani would have been the man to get that job done,” Ms. Geranmayeh said. “Larijani has long been the bridge builder between the military and political establishment. Israel seems to be turning its attention to targeting those that could push for a political solution to the current crisis.”
In Washington, Mr. Trump responded to Mr. Kent’s resignation by sharply criticizing him, saying, “I always thought he was weak on security,” even though Mr. Trump nominated him last year to lead the National Counterterrorism Center.
The Senate had confirmed Mr. Kent to the post, despite concerns among Democrats that he had promoted Mr. Trump’s false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and the conspiracy theory that F.B.I. played a role in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Mr. Trump also rejected Mr. Kent’s claim that Israel had pushed the United States into war with Iran. He called Israel “a partner” and added, “I was against Iran long before I even thought about Israel being against Iran.”
On Tuesday, Israeli and U.S. forces launched more attacks on Iran, which has responded by firing missiles and drones at countries across the Middle East and by blocking the flow of most oil shipped through the Strait of Hormuz.
On Tuesday, a tanker anchored near a port in the United Arab Emirates sustained minor damage when it was hit by a projectile. There were no reports of injuries, but it was the first strike on a ship in and around the Strait of Hormuz in five days, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a monitoring agency. At least 17 vessels have been attacked in the region since the start of the war.
The United Arab Emirates said debris from an intercepted missile had killed a Pakistani citizen. Qatar and Saudi Arabia reported that missiles and drones had been intercepted in their countries. And Kuwait’s health ministry said two emergency workers were injured after debris fell on an ambulance center.
In southern Lebanon, Israel has been expanding military operations against Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia. An Israeli airstrike killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded four others, the Lebanese Army said on Tuesday. The Israeli military said that it was reviewing the episode, and that it was targeting Hezbollah and not Lebanese forces or civilians.
More than 900 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 830,000 have been displaced, according to officials there.
At least 1,348 civilians in Iran have been killed since the start of the war, Iran’s U.N. representative has told the Security Council. At least 12 people have been killed in Israel, the authorities there said. Thirteen American service members have been killed, according to the Pentagon.
Reporting was contributed by Euan Ward, Michael Levenson, David E. Sanger, Karoun Demirjian, Adam Rasgon, Johnatan Reiss, John Yoon, Rawan Sheikh Ahmad, Steven Erlanger and Julian E. Barnes.
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
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