Defense Minister Israel Katz, responding to what he said was Iranian propaganda, renewed his belligerent rhetoric Monday against the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, whom he had threatened with assassination during the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June.
“I suggest to Iranian dictator Khamenei that when he leaves his bunker, he occasionally lift his eyes to the sky and listen carefully to every buzz,” Katz wrote on X, apparently referring to Israeli drone activity.
The comment came in response to what the minister said was a Hebrew-language graphic circulated by Tehran marking senior Israeli officials as assassination targets, including “Terror Minister Israel Katz.”
The graphic also includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom it accuses of crimes against humanity; Israeli Air Force chief Tomer Bar, whom it brands a “murderer of children”; and others.
The graphic appears to be an ersatz version of an Israeli graphic used to announce its assassinations of senior Iranian officials during the war. It was unclear where it originated or how widespread it was before Katz republished it.
In his tweet, Katz told Khamenei that “participants of the ‘Red Wedding’ are waiting for him,” referring to a large-scale Israeli surprise attack in the opening hours of the war on June 13, which was code-named “Red Wedding” after the infamous scene in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series and HBO series “Game of Thrones,” in which several main characters were slain in a surprise attack.
In those hours, some 30 senior military commanders, including the three most senior generals, were killed in near-simultaneous strikes in the Iranian capital, crippling Iran’s command and control and delaying its response for nearly 24 hours.
Katz also threatened Khamenei in late July, saying: “If you continue to threaten Israel, our long arm will again reach Tehran and with even greater force — and this time to you personally. Do not threaten, lest you be harmed.”
The defense minister said in June that Israel sought to assassinate Khamenei during the 12-day war with Iran, which Jerusalem launched to remove the threat — characterized by Israel as imminent and existential — posed by Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
“If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out,” Katz said at the time, adding that Israel “searched a lot” for Khamenei, but the operational opportunity did not arise.
During the war, Katz had been particularly vocal about killing Khamenei, calling the supreme leader a “modern Hitler” who “cannot continue to exist.” He told the Kan public broadcaster that Israel’s goal was not regime change, but “upsetting the regime in the middle of the operation and pressuring the Iranians.”
US President Donald Trump also threatened Khamenei’s life during the war, posting on social media on June 17: “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”
Several major news outlets reported during the war that Israel had a window of opportunity to assassinate Khamenei in the opening hours of the war, but that Trump vetoed the move. At the time, many Israeli officials denied the reports, while others, including the prime minister, declined to address them directly.