Israel reportedly eliminates nuclear scientist, expands messaging campaign (June 20 updates)

Israel expanded its campaign against Iran with strikes on Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sites, missile infrastructure, and nuclear-linked facilities, reportedly killing a nuclear scientist in Tehran. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) framed the attacks as targeting the Iranian regime’s repression and appealing to public discontent. Talks between Iran and EU officials on June 20 brought no breakthrough, as Tehran ruled out abandoning uranium enrichment.

The latest targeted assassinations

A powerful explosion was reported in Tehran’s central Gisha neighborhood on June 20. Regime outlets attributed the blast to an Israeli drone strike on a building in the area, with some claiming that the intended target was an Iranian nuclear scientist.

Meanwhile, Israeli media outlets linked the incident to “Operation Narnia,” claiming the home of a prominent nuclear expert had been hit, though no names were disclosed.

Israel Army Radio also reported a drone strike in Tehran that targeted an Iranian nuclear scientist. A military source claimed that “the intended target was killed,” though no official confirmation or denial has been issued by Israeli or Iranian authorities.

State media reported that the former head of the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC, Hossein Taeb, was assassinated by Israel. However, the outlets swiftly removed the reports and denied the claims, saying they were issued due to “human error.”

Israel’s latest kinetic operations

The command headquarters of the Karbala Base—part of the IRGC-Ground Forces in Khuzestan—was reportedly struck by a heavy Israeli attack on June 20. The facility, located within the “Awaiting Martyrs” barracks in Ahvaz, serves as a key command center for regional IRGC operations. Various videos show heavy explosions in the vicinity.

A video was posted on June 20 claiming that Israel targeted an IRGC safe house on North Majidieh Street in Tehran with three drones on June 17. The strike killed five personnel, and the blast shattered windows across a 400-meter radius.

Other unconfirmed reports claimed that one of the targets of Israel’s June 19 strike in Golestan Province was the Kansar Khazar iodine production plant, located in the Aq Qala region. The facility was reportedly under heavy security by the IRGC, with public and media access strictly prohibited. State-affiliated outlets had previously reported the presence of radioactive material in the plant’s wastewater.

The IDF Persian account announced the following targets as part of its June 19 attacks:

• The Israeli military concluded a wave of strikes deep in the heart of Tehran, hitting dozens of sites, including military-industrial facilities involved in missile production and the headquarters of the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND)—the organization responsible for the development of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Founded in 2011 under the directive of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh—a senior IRGC officer and key architect of Iran’s nuclear program who was assassinated in 2020—SPND operates under the Ministry of Defense and is considered one of its strategic arms in military technology development. Fakhrizadeh led the organization until his death. This is not the first time the SPND headquarters has come under attack—its facilities were also struck on June 13.
• A warning was issued for evacuation in the “Sefidrud” industrial zone near the village of Kalash Talashan.
• The Israeli Air Force struck the headquarters of the special forces command within Iran’s Law Enforcement Organization.
• Israel’s Air Force and Navy intercepted and destroyed hundreds of drones launched from Iran toward Israeli territory.
• After detecting the regime’s efforts to rebuild launch sites in western Iran, the Israeli military targeted several of these positions.
• The Air Force also bombed infrastructure and launchers used for surface-to-surface missiles in western Iran.

Israeli strikes against “symbols of the regime”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on June 20 that he had ordered the military to escalate strikes on “symbols of the regime” in Tehran, aiming to shake its foundations.

“We must strike at all the symbols of the regime and the mechanisms of oppression of the population, such as the Basij (militia), and the regime’s power base, such as the Revolutionary Guard,” Katz said. This approach targets the regime’s repression apparatus, seeking to appeal to the anti-regime sentiment shared by many Iranians.

In a further attempt to speak directly to the Iranian people, the IDF Persian account stated on June 20, “Beyond their military role, Law Enforcement institutions are responsible for ensuring the regime’s survival and carrying out the brutal, systematic repression of the Iranian people. We know how much you suffer under these institutions — and how deeply you long for freedom, to live your lives without the constant fear of this repression.”

In addition to Tehran’s Law Enforcement headquarters, the Zabihollah Solgi Basij base in Garm Dareh—located on the western edge of Karaj—was destroyed following an Israeli military strike on June 15. Footage of the attack, recorded and uploaded on June 20, supports earlier reports of Israeli attacks targeting regime-affiliated sites in the region. The Basij is a sub-militia of the IRGC that is primarily tasked with quashing protests.

No diplomatic solution in sight

In the first face-to-face meeting between Tehran and European officials since the outbreak of war with Israel, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with diplomats from Britain, France, Germany, and the EU’s foreign policy chief in Geneva on June 20. The three-and-a-half-hour meeting offered hope for further dialogue but produced no immediate breakthrough on the nuclear crisis.

A senior regime official told Reuters that while Tehran is willing to consider restrictions on uranium enrichment, it will categorically reject any proposal that demands complete dismantlement— “especially now under Israel’s strikes.” The Islamic Republic’s staunch stance on maintaining a uranium enrichment capability had gridlocked the latest rounds of nuclear talks with Washington.

Janatan Sayeh is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies focused on Iranian domestic affairs and the Islamic Republic’s regional malign influence.