Defense Minister Israel Katz issued his strongest threat yet to assassinate Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Thursday, saying Tehran’s supreme leader “cannot continue to exist,” as Israeli leaders fumed following a missile attack that hit a Beersheba hospital and residential buildings near Tel Aviv.

Visiting a missile impact site that reduced a cluster of residential buildings in the central city of Holon to rubble, Katz did not say whether Israel would pursue regime change as part of its military offensive in Tehran, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to match his tough talk, saying only that Khamenei’s elimination remained on the table.

Katz told the media that the Iranian leader was “personally giving the order to fire on hospitals and residential buildings,” charging that Tehran saw strikes on civilian targets as part of its mission of destroying Israel.

Under the IDF’s war goals, “without question this man should not continue to exist,” Katz said.

“A dictator like Khamenei, who heads a country like Iran and has made the destruction of the State of Israel his declared goal, this horrific goal of destroying Israel, cannot be allowed to continue or materialize,” he said.

The defense minister likened Khamenei to Adolf Hitler, asserting that if Israel had existed during the Holocaust, and its leaders knew the IDF could capture and kill the Nazi leader to stop the Holocaust, it would have done so.

“We would have sent the IDF, extracted him and eliminated him. And just like that, correspondingly, I see the current situation — Khamenei is the modern Hitler,” Katz said.

His threats followed reports that Israel had wanted to assassinate the Iranian autocrat as it launched its offensive last week, but that US President Donald Trump vetoed the move. Israeli officials have denied the reports.

Netanyahu has left the question of Khamenei’s assassination an open one, telling reporters Thursday that he had given instructions that “no one is immune.”

“I prefer not to deal with headlines and to let actions speak for themselves,” he said while touring Beersheba’s Soroka hospital after it was hit by an Iranian missile.

“During a war… words have to be chosen with care, and actions with precision,” he said, adding that “all options are open.”

In an apparent dig at Katz and his blatant calls to assassinate Khamenei, Netanyahu advised that “it’s best not to speak about this in the press,” adding that he expects this “from my ministers as well.”

He called potential US involvement in the war “a decision for President Trump.”

“He will do what is good for America, and I will do what’s good for Israel,” said the premier, adding that the US president “knows the game.”

He claimed that Israel has the ability to carry out the entire mission by itself if needed, despite indications that heavy American bombs may be needed to eliminate parts of Iran’s nuclear program buried deep underground.

“At the end of this operation, there will be no nuclear threat on Israel, and there won’t be a ballistic threat,” he vowed.

Several major news outlets reported Sunday that Israel had a window of opportunity during the opening strikes on Iran early Friday morning to assassinate Khamenei, but that Trump had vetoed the move.

Trump later threatened Khamenei himself, but said there were no plans to kill him, “at least not for now.”

Netanyahu has remained coy about whether Israel’s goals could extend beyond the elimination of Iran’s nuclear program, telling Fox News on Sunday that regime change in Iran “could certainly be the result” of Israel’s ongoing military campaign, though he did not say it was the goal.

Israeli officials have said repeatedly since launching intensive waves of airstrikes on Iran early Friday that the campaign is preemptive and was initiated to stave off the imminent, existential threat of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon and growing its ballistic missile arsenal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he had warned against eliminating Khamenei, saying that he “doesn’t even want to discuss” the Iranian leader’s potential assassination.

Putin was answering a question at a meeting of senior editors from various media organizations on the sidelines of an economic forum.

Asked if Russia was ready to provide Iran with modern weapons to defend itself against Israeli strikes, Putin said a strategic partnership treaty signed with Tehran in January did not envisage military cooperation.