"If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out," Katz told Israel's public radio station Kan Thursday evening.
en.prothomalo.com
Israel would have killed Iran's Khamenei if given opportunity: Minister
AFP Jerusalem
Updated: 27 Jun 2025, 17: 39
This image grab taken from footage broadcast by Iran's IRIB news state television on 26 June 2025, shows Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, addressing the nation in front of a portrait of his predecessor, the late founder of the Islamic republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. AFP
Defence Minister Israel Katz told media that Israel would have killed Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the war between the two countries if the opportunity had presented itself.
"If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out," Katz told Israel's public radio station Kan Thursday evening, adding that the military had "searched a lot".
"Khamenei understood this, went very deep underground, broke off contact with the commanders... so in the end it wasn't realistic," Katz told Kan.
He told Israeli television Channel 13 Thursday that Israel would cease its assassination attempts because "there is a difference between before the ceasefire and after the ceasefire".
Katz had said during the war that Khamenei "can no longer be allowed to exist", just days after reports that Washington vetoed Israeli plans to assassinate him.
But on Kan, Katz advised Khamenei to remain inside a bunker.
"He should learn from the late Nasrallah, who sat for a long time deep in the bunker", he said, referring to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah's former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who Israel killed in a Beirut air strike in September 2024.
The movements of the supreme leader, who has not left Iran since he took power, are subject to the tightest security and secrecy.
Katz said Thursday that Israel maintained its aerial superiority over Iran and that it was ready to strike again.
"We won't let Iran develop nuclear weapons and threaten (Israel) with long-range missiles", he said.
In his Channel 12 interview, Katz admitted that Israel does not know the location of all of Iran's enriched uranium, but that its air strikes had destroyed the Islamic republic's uranium enrichment capabilities.
"The material itself was not something that was supposed to be neutralised," he said of the enriched uranium.
The impact of Israeli and US strikes on Iran's nuclear programme has been a subject to debate.
A leaked US intelligence assessment estimated the programme to have set Iran back a few months, while Katz and other Israeli and US public figures said the damage would take years to rebuild.
Israel and Iran each claimed victory in a 12-day war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.
The war erupted on 13 June when Israel launched a bombing campaign that it said aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon -- an ambition Iran has consistently denied.
"If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out," Katz told Israel's public radio station Kan Thursday evening.
en.prothomalo.com
Israel would have killed Iran's Khamenei if given opportunity: Minister
AFP Jerusalem
Updated: 27 Jun 2025, 17: 39
View attachment 19391
This image grab taken from footage broadcast by Iran's IRIB news state television on 26 June 2025, shows Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, addressing the nation in front of a portrait of his predecessor, the late founder of the Islamic republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. AFP
Defence Minister Israel Katz told media that Israel would have killed Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the war between the two countries if the opportunity had presented itself.
"If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out," Katz told Israel's public radio station Kan Thursday evening, adding that the military had "searched a lot".
"Khamenei understood this, went very deep underground, broke off contact with the commanders... so in the end it wasn't realistic," Katz told Kan.
He told Israeli television Channel 13 Thursday that Israel would cease its assassination attempts because "there is a difference between before the ceasefire and after the ceasefire".
Katz had said during the war that Khamenei "can no longer be allowed to exist", just days after reports that Washington vetoed Israeli plans to assassinate him.
But on Kan, Katz advised Khamenei to remain inside a bunker.
"He should learn from the late Nasrallah, who sat for a long time deep in the bunker", he said, referring to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah's former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who Israel killed in a Beirut air strike in September 2024.
The movements of the supreme leader, who has not left Iran since he took power, are subject to the tightest security and secrecy.
Katz said Thursday that Israel maintained its aerial superiority over Iran and that it was ready to strike again.
"We won't let Iran develop nuclear weapons and threaten (Israel) with long-range missiles", he said.
In his Channel 12 interview, Katz admitted that Israel does not know the location of all of Iran's enriched uranium, but that its air strikes had destroyed the Islamic republic's uranium enrichment capabilities.
"The material itself was not something that was supposed to be neutralised," he said of the enriched uranium.
The impact of Israeli and US strikes on Iran's nuclear programme has been a subject to debate.
A leaked US intelligence assessment estimated the programme to have set Iran back a few months, while Katz and other Israeli and US public figures said the damage would take years to rebuild.
Israel and Iran each claimed victory in a 12-day war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.
The war erupted on 13 June when Israel launched a bombing campaign that it said aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon -- an ambition Iran has consistently denied.
Tiny Israel talks like a superpower. I wonder what would happen to Israel if the USA stops supporting them. Israel must be uprooted from the Middle East otherwise with the support of the USA they will create greater Israel through land grabbing.
Tiny Israel talks like a superpower. I wonder what would happen to Israel if the USA stops supporting them. Israel must be uprooted from the Middle East otherwise with the support of the USA they will create greater Israel through land grabbing.
Israel's a western proxy........there used to be muzlim colluddz converts that the west could use to try to pressurize Iran into submission.......They've all failed or are incompetent and now the west is forced ta use Israel directly against Iran. And Irans turned Israeli cities and its military bases into Gaza.
Iran's not goin back down like these muzlims and Hendu do.......
Israel has suffered an estimated $12 billion in direct losses from its 12-day war against Iran, with total damages potentially rising to $20 billion, according to reports.
The video and pictures going viral with the claim that the headquarters of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was completely destroyed in Iran's attack are not real but AI-created. It is worth noting that after June 13, Iran and Israel have been continuously attacking each other.
The IRGC issued a statement a short while back that it had struck Israeli military's Intelligence HQ and Mossad Operations centre in an airstrike on Tel Aviv. Footage on social media showed thick plumes of smoke emanating from buildings reportedly from Tel Aviv. The attacks follow a fresh...
Op. True Promise III, in a way never seen before, shattered the Israeli military myths as Iranian missiles targeted the regime’s key intelligence, military, industrial, and energy sites.
What We Found: AI-Generated VisualsBOOM found the visuals to be fake and created using artificial intelligence.Photo of 'Mosad' Building
1. Spelling Error in Mossad's Name: In the viral image, the name of Israel’s national intelligence agency, Mossad, is misspelled as "Mosad".
2. AI Detection Tool Flags the Image: We analysed the image using detection tool Was It AI, which indicated that "the image, or a significant portion of it," was generated by artificial intelligence.