Terror groups in Gaza are reeling from the assassination of Mohammad Saeed Izadi, commander of the "Palestine Corps" within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force. Izadi, considered the key liaison between Iran and both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), was killed Friday night in the Iranian city of Qom.
Izadi, a senior Iranian military figure, was far more than a financier. Palestinian factions described him as “the man who pulled the strings” — from military coordination to overseeing cultural and social programs that reinforced their power.
Footage of IDF strikes in Qom
According to the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, Izadi rose to prominence after the 1992 expulsion of hundreds of Palestinian terrorists to Marj Elzohur in southern Lebanon, becoming a central figure in the Palestinian "resistance."
A senior Hamas official told Al-Akhbar that while Izadi “wasn’t often mentioned in the media, every leader of the resistance knew him. He understood the needs of the resistance and Gaza’s suffering in detail.”
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PIJ sources echoed this sentiment, highlighting his ability to navigate the ideological and tactical divides among factions: “He maintained respectful and balanced relationships, whether with those who favored attritional warfare or those focused on building capabilities for future conflict.”
In addition to his military role, Izadi invested heavily in what Iranian officials refer to as the “resistance greenhouse” — a support network offering financial, social and psychological assistance to the families of slain terrorists. For 25 years, he oversaw aid institutions, managed funding allocations and quietly shaped the worldview of Gaza’s youth — all with little public exposure.
Even groups not formally aligned with Iran, such as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (formerly part of Fatah) and the Popular Resistance Committees, viewed Izadi as a father figure.
A source in the Mujahideen Brigades — the terror group that abducted Shiri Bibas and her children during the October 7 attack and later murdered them in captivity — said, “He knew how to speak to everyone on their level, without ideological coercion and with deep understanding of the local reality.”
According to Al-Akhbar, Izadi’s influence extended to the smallest details: he reportedly knew Gaza’s main streets by name, referenced local restaurants in conversations and often joked about it. But his most significant strength, sources say, was his ability to unify diverse and often competing factions and build the infrastructure of Palestinian terrorism around himself.
In Gaza, his death is being felt profoundly. As one source told Al-Akhbar, “His blood was spilled in Iran — but it stained the soil of Gaza.”