Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “can no longer be allowed to exist,” Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said today after an Iranian missile hit a hospital in a town near Tel Aviv.
Mr Khamenei will be held accountable over the hospital strike, the minister said.
“The cowardly Iranian dictator sits in the depths of a fortified bunker and fires missiles at hospitals and residential buildings in Israel. These are war crimes of the most serious kind – and Khamenei will be held accountable for his crimes,” Mr Katz said in a post on X, indicating Israel Defence Forces (IDF) will do everything they can to eliminate the Iranian leader.
“The Prime Minister and I have instructed the IDF to increase the intensity of attacks against strategic targets in Iran and against government targets in Tehran in order to remove threats to Israel and undermine the Ayatollah’s regime,” the Israeli defence minister said.
Iran today claimed the main target of the missile attack that hit a hospital in southern Israel was an Israeli military and intelligence base, not the health facility. Israeli rescuers reported at least 47 people were injured in the attack.
“The main target of the attack was the Israeli Army Command and Intelligence Base (IDF C4I) and the Army Intelligence Camp in Gav-Yam Technology Park, located in the vicinity of the Soroka Hospital,” Iran’s state news agency IRNA said.
It said the hospital was “exposed only to the blast wave”, and that the “direct and precise target” was the military facility.
In parallel, Israel’s military campaign against Iran has intensified, with Israeli airstrikes taking out multiple senior Iranian military figures, nuclear scientists and nuclear infrastructure across Iran.
Israeli forces reportedly hit over 50 targets in Tehran alone, including a centrifuge facility and enrichment component workshops.
Iran has, however, rejected US President Donald Trump’s call for an “unconditional surrender,” warning of dire consequences if the US intervened militarily in the conflict, The New York Times reported.
“Intelligent people who know Iran, the nation and the history of Iran, will never speak to this nation in the language of threats, because the Iranian nation cannot be surrendered,” Mr Khamenei said in a televised address. “The Americans should know that any US military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage.”
