From Khamenei to Sinwar: High profile leaders killed by Israel since 2023

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who succeeded the leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1989, was killed in a joint military operation by the United States and Israel on February 28, 2025. He was one of the key figures in the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and served as the President of Iran from 1981 to 1989 before ascending to the role of Supreme Leader. He was leading the Axis of Resistance and opposing the US-Israel in West Asia. Towards the end of 2025 and the startof 2026, he faced massive unrest due to the deteriorating economic condition of the country, which he quelled with an iron fist.

57-year-old Saleh Arouri was the deputy political Head of Hamas. He was one of the founders of the group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. The United States labelled al-Arouri as a “global terrorist” in 2015 and issued a $5m reward for any information on him. Netanyahu threatened to kill him even before the October 7 attack. He was killed in a drone strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahiyeh on January 2, 2024.

Mohammed Deif was also one of the founders of the Qassam Brigades and the military commander of Hamas in Gaza. According to Israel, he, along with Yahya Sinwar, was the architect of the October 7 attack. The attack, according to Hamas, was a payback for the Israeli raids at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site. He was killed in an Israeli air strike on al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on July 13, 2024.

Fouad Shukur was one of Hezbollah’s founders after the Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Shukr oversaw numerous attacks against the Israeli military and its former ally, the South Lebanon Army (SLA). The US had marked him as “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” in 2019 and placed a bounty of $5million. He was killed in an Israeli air strike on July 30, 2024, in southern Beirut.

Ismail Haniyeh was the political chief of Hamas. He was killed just hours after Fouad Shukur in Tehran, where he was attending the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian. He was staying at a special residence for military veterans in the north of Tehran when an “airborne guided projectile” hit the house.

Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs killed Hezbollah’s longtime leader and one of its founders, Hassan Nasrallah, on September 27, 2024. Under his leadership, Hezbollah fought wars against Israel and sided with President Bashar Assad of Syria.

The deputy head of Hezbollah’s central council was killed by Israel's airstrike on September 28, 2024, in the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut, just a day after the killing of Hassan Nasrallah. He was a veteran member who joined Hezbollah in the 1980s, held several key positions within the organisation, including Deputy Commander of the southern region.

Hashem Safieddine, a relative of Nasrallah, was supposed to replace him as the leader of Hezbollah was killed on October 3, 2024. He was the first Hezbollah official to speak in public after the group's Palestinian ally Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023. His son, Rida, is married to the daughter of the late Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.

Yahya Sinwar led Hamas in Gaza since the deaths of the group’s political leaders, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. He died fighting the Israeli troops on October 16, 2024. He was the master mind of the Al Aqsa flood.

He was the brother of Yahya Sinwar and nicknamed “the Shadow”. He was born in the Khan Yunis refugee camp on September 16, 1975. Sinwar had been subject to at least six assassination attempts by Israel within a span of 20 years. He was killed by an Israeli strike on May 13, 2025.

Hossein Salami was the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, killed on June 13, 2025, during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran. He was a longtime confidant of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He was subjected to sanctions in 2007 from US and its allies.

Ahmed al-Rahawi was the Prime Minister of the Houthi-controlled administration in Sanaa and was killed in an Israeli airstrike on August 30, 2025. He was the most senior Houthi official to be killed since an Israeli-U.S. campaign against the militant group started earlier this year.

Abu Obeida was the spokesperson of the Hamas armed wing. His real name was Hudhayfah Samir Abdullah al-Kahlout. He led Al-Qassam's media campaign, appearing in videos masked in a red-checkered Palestinian keffiyeh. He was also killed on the same day as Ahmed Al-Rahawi during an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City.