There has been growing speculation that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Esmail Qaani was executed by Iran for spying for Israel.
Tehran has not confirmed the reports.
Arab Media however, has been reporting that Qaani was arrested and possibly executed on suspicion of espionage.
Emirati outlet The National reported that the claims were appearing on social media.
The reports have come after years of rumours surrounding the Quds Force general. Qaani earned the reputation of being “the man with nine lives” for repeatedly surviving and escaping about nine suspected assassination attempts that killed top leaders around him.
Most recently, Qaani was not among those who were killed in the strikes that led to the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with several senior regime figures. Unverified reports claim that he left the site minutes before the attack happened.
This is not the first time Qaani escaped death.
Suspicions grew as he was close to several of the figures who were killed during multiple US-Israeli strikes over the years.
In October 2024, he was declared dead, then interrogated and then appeared on TV.
In 2025, during the 12-day war, he was declared dead by several outlets. He then appeared again on national TV.
Qaani had somehow convinced interrogators of his innocence after mysteriously leaving sites which were struck by Israeli missiles unharmed.
More rumours came about when an insider agent recruited by Mossad reportedly sent a video of Khamenei's body to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In 2025, Mossad published a photo from a secret meeting held by the general with a person whose identity was redacted. The attached caption implied that Qaani had ties with Israeli intelligence.
The photo followed another round of speculation that Qaani was killed in Israeli action.
The general, however, dismissed the claims, saying that it was an attempt by Israel to determine his location.
A social media account linked to Mossad claimed that same year that Qaani was not a spy,
Now reports say that after Israel took out Hezbollah's leadership, Iran launched a formal investigation into possible security breaches.
Social media accounts then began circulating claims that Qaani was executed by the IRGC after being taken into custody for being a Mossad agent.
Tehran has reportedly denied the claims Jfeed reported
Qaani became the head of the IRGC’s Quds force in January 2020 after the US assassinated his predecessor Qassem Suleimani.