Khamenei orders direct attack on Israel

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered a direct strike on Israel for the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.

According to a report by the New York Times on Wednesday, Khamenei and other top Iranian officials vowed a response to the Palestinian Hamas leader’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 ready 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.

Khamenei had hosted Haniyeh, who was visiting Tehran for the swearing-in ceremony of new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, for a meeting on Tuesday hours before he was killed.

Source : New York Times