Iran is preparing a high-profile funeral in Tehran for Ali Larijani, the country’s powerful security chief, whose killing in an Israeli air strike has pushed the region deeper into open conflict.

State media say Larijani will be buried alongside Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij paramilitary force, in a ceremony expected to draw vast crowds and the full leadership of the Islamic Republic. Both men were killed in what Tehran describes as a targeted Israeli strike, the latest in a chain of assassinations that has decapitated much of Iran’s senior security elite.

Larijani is the most senior official to be killed since Israel and the United States began coordinated attacks on Iran, an offensive that also claimed the life of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and triggered a multi-front war stretching from the Mediterranean to the Gulf.

Iran’s response has been swift and expansive. A barrage of missiles launched at Israel killed two people near Tel Aviv and caused significant damage, while Gulf states reported intercepting rockets and drones aimed at strategic sites, including US military facilities. In Lebanon, already engulfed in the conflict through Iran-backed Hezbollah, Israeli strikes hit central Beirut, sending plumes of smoke over the capital.

Iranian army chief Amir Hatami vowed that the killing of Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, would bring a “decisive and regrettable” response. The Revolutionary Guards declared that his “pure blood” would fuel a “national awakening” against what they called the “front of global arrogance.”

Tehran has also sought to wield economic pressure, tightening its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s crude oil passes. Oil prices have surged as the United States deploys heavy munitions against Iranian missile sites threatening shipping lanes.

Regional and global powers are scrambling to contain the fallout. Turkey’s foreign minister condemned Israel’s “political assassinations” of Iranian leaders, while Israel has openly threatened Mojtaba Khamenei, the new and reclusive supreme leader.

Analysts say Larijani, 68, was central to Iran’s survival strategy, overseeing domestic repression, regional alliances and military planning. His death, they warn, removes a key architect of Tehran’s security doctrine at the very moment the Middle East edges closer to a wider, uncontrolled war.