The commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, is in good health and will soon receive a Fath medal from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Iranian officials. The semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted a senior Revolutionary Guards adviser on Wednesday confirming Qaani’s well-being, despite earlier reports that he had been unaccounted for following Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon.

Two senior Iranian security officials had told Reuters that Qaani, who traveled to Lebanon after the September 27 killing of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike, had not been heard from since the latest Israeli bombings of south Beirut. However, Ebrahim Jabbari, an adviser to Qaani, told Tasnim that the commander is in “perfect health” and will be awarded the prestigious Fath medal by Khamenei in the coming days.

This follows previous statements from Quds Force deputy commander Iraj Masjedi, who also denied that Qaani had been harmed amid Israel’s escalating strikes on Hezbollah strongholds. The Quds Force is Iran’s overseas military and intelligence unit, with Qaani taking command after the assassination of his predecessor, Qassem Soleimani, by the US in 2020.