On Sunday, the Jerusalem Post reported that its sources said Israeli ministers had been told that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei personally ordered his military to attack Israeli civilian population centers.
In 2012, former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, speaking at of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, recalled, “In a private discussion we held in Tehran in October of 2000, Ali Khamenei told me that Israel must be burned to the ground and made to disappear from the face of the Earth,” adding that Khamenei declared that “Iran’s war against the United States and Israel is inevitable.”
Former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold asked Aznar, “When Khamenei was talking about wiping Israel off the map, was he referring to a gradual historical process involving the collapse of the Zionist state, or rather its physical-military termination?”
“He meant physical termination through military force,” Aznar replied, adding that Khamenei was “working toward Iran defeating the United States and Israel in an inevitable war against them.”
On Saturday the Jerusalem Post had reported that Israel had warned Iran it would strike strategic infrastructure if Iran targeted civilian centers in Israel; Iran has already launched missiles at Tel Aviv, Haifa, Ramat Gan, and Rishon Lezion.
According to numerous reports, Iran has launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel, many at Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest population center. “As of noon today, 13 people had been killed so far by the Iranian missile strikes and nearly 400 people were injured, nine of them gravely, according to the Israeli government,” The New York Times reported on Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the site where a missile struck in Bat Yam that destroyed a building, killing six people, three women, ages roughly 80, 60, and 50, an eighteen-year-old boy, a 20 year-old boy, and an eight-year-old girl. Search efforts are still ongoing to look through the rubble for more survivors.
“Even before most of the rescue forces arrived, the road here was littered with metal,” Bat Yam Mayor Tzvika Brot said, “Dust covered all the vehicles and people were lying in the street—scenes reminiscent of the Twin Towers disaster. Right now, 61 buildings have been damaged, of which six or seven will likely have to be demolished—and that number may rise to double digits. It’s quite unprecedented to have to demolish this many buildings from a single strike. Unfortunately, the evacuation is still not complete. We expect the number to rise. We know there are still people trapped, and we hope there aren’t many,” Israel National News reported.
Four Israeli Arab women were killed by an Iranian missile strike that hit northern Israeli Arab town of Tamra on Saturday night; after Iran launched dozens of missiles towards Israeli territory. A mother, her two daughters, ages 13 and 20, and another family member.