Israel says it has killed the senior Iranian naval commander accused of orchestrating the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a move that had choked one of the world’s most critical energy corridors and rattled global markets.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Defence Minister Israel Katz said Revolutionary Guard Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri died in a “precise” airstrike in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, along with several senior naval officers, including the IRGC Navy’s reported intelligence chief, Behnam Rezaei. Iran has not publicly confirmed his death, and the claims could not be independently verified.
Unverified footage circulating on regional media shows a collapsed building and emergency crews working under floodlights in Bandar Abbas, which hosts key Iranian naval facilities on the Strait of Hormuz. Israeli officials say Tangsiri was meeting other commanders there when the missiles struck.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Tangsiri as the architect of a campaign of naval attacks and mining operations that halted commercial traffic through the narrow waterway, through which a significant share of the world’s seaborne oil normally passes. Netanyahu said the commander “had a great deal of blood on his hands” and personally led the effort to block the strait.
The IDF accused Tangsiri of years of attacks on oil tankers and commercial vessels and of threatening “freedom of navigation and trade in the international maritime domain.” During the current conflict, Israeli officials say he directed operations to close the Strait of Hormuz and advanced plans for further maritime attacks, calling him “one of the primary figures responsible for disrupting the global economy.”
Katz framed the strike as a warning to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, declaring that Israeli forces would “hunt you down and eliminate you one by one” and vowing continued operations “with full force” inside Iran to achieve Israel’s war aims.
The reported killing comes amid fraught diplomacy involving Washington and regional powers. According to regional sources, Israel agreed under US pressure to remove Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf from a reported target list after Pakistan and others warned that eliminating them would leave “no one left to talk to” in ongoing peace efforts.
Tehran, however, has publicly rejected US proposals to halt the war, with Araghchi insisting on state television that Iran will continue “resistance,” demanding a permanent end to hostilities and compensation for extensive destruction and loss of life.
