Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has ordered a direct strike on Israel for the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, according to a report Wednesday, as he and other top Iranian officials vowed to respond to the Palestinian terror chief’s assassination in Tehran.
Citing three unnamed Iranian officials briefed on the matter, including two Revolutionary Guard members, the New York Times reported that Khamenei gave the directive at an emergency meeting of the Supreme National Security Council held shortly after Haniyeh’s killing was announced Wednesday morning.
As part of the order, the officials said Khamenei told commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iranian Army to prepare both attack and defense plans “in the event that the war expands and Israel or the United States strike Iran.”
Israel has not commented on the incident, which came amid its war with the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip and hours after an IDF strike in Beirut killed the top military commander of fellow Iran-backed Hezbollah. With Israel on high alert for a possible response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned in an address to the nation on Wednesday evening that “challenging days are ahead,” but vowed the country was “ready for every scenario” and “will exact a very heavy price for any aggression against us.” He did not mention Haniyeh.
“With this action, the criminal and terrorist Zionist regime prepared the ground for harsh punishment for itself, and we consider it our duty to seek revenge for his blood as he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Khamenei said in a statement on the assassination carried by state media.
