Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address that “there are increasingly strong signs” that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been killed.
He said that they destroyed the Ayatollah’s compound and that all indications are that he is no longer alive. This contradicts earlier Iranian reports that Khamenei is alive.
Netanyahu points out that they successfully targeted senior members of Iran’s nuclear program and other senior officials, without specifying who exactly they killed. He said he would continue to attack “thousands of targets”.
He also called on the Iranian people to “unify and revolt against the regime.”
“Don’t miss the opportunity. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. The moment will come soon. The moment when you must take to the streets en masse and finish the job of overthrowing the regime of terror that is making your lives miserable,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew and added in English, “Help has arrived.”
He thanked US President Donald Trump for his “historic leadership”.
“He is a leader who keeps his word,” he said.
Netanyahu says Israel went to war to “fundamentally change” the situation in which Iran was on a path to nuclear weapons that would allow it to drastically increase threats against its neighbors.
Information about the Ayatollah’s death was published by numerous Israeli media, as well as the Reuters news agency, which states that an Israeli official told them that they had found Khamenei’s body.
Reuters also reports that there is still no Iranian confirmation of the Ayatollah’s death and they have published a statement from the head of the Public Relations Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran saying “the enemy is resorting to mental warfare, everyone should be aware of this”. With this, he alluded that the Israeli news about Khamenei’s death is propaganda.
Not long after Israel and the US launched an attack on Iran this morning, they announced that the compound where Ali Khamenei is located was hit. Iran’s foreign minister claimed that the Ayatollah was alive, while Israeli sources persistently circulated information about his potential death.
Videos and photos showing the destroyed buildings in the Ayatollah’s compound have been published, but no one has officially confirmed that he was actually there at the time of the attack.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (86) has ruled Iran since 1989. As supreme leader, he has ultimate authority over all branches of government, the military and the judiciary in Iran.
Over nearly four decades, Khamenei built a regional power to rival the Sunni Muslim states across the Gulf, while promoting nuclear technology that alarmed Israel and the US.
