Israel had decided to eliminate Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as early as November last year and had originally planned to execute the operation around mid-2026, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz revealed on Thursday.
Khamenei was killed in the opening hours of a joint US-Israeli air campaign that began on Saturday, marking the first time a country’s top ruler has been assassinated through an airstrike.
The initial wave of attacks reportedly killed several senior Iranian leaders and intensified hostilities across the Middle East. In response, Iran launched retaliatory strikes targeting Israel as well as locations in the Gulf and Iraq, while Israel expanded its offensive against Iran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Already in November we were convened with the prime minister in a very tight forum, and the prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) set the goal of eliminating Khamenei,” Katz told Israel’s N12 television channel, adding that the operation had initially been scheduled for mid-2026.
According to Katz, the plan was later shared with the United States and the timeline was advanced around January after protests erupted in Iran. Israel feared that mounting pressure on Iran’s clerical leadership could prompt Tehran to launch attacks on Israeli or American interests in the region.
Israel has maintained that its objective is to neutralise what it describes as an existential threat posed by Iran’s nuclear programme and ballistic missile capabilities, while also seeking to trigger political change in Tehran. However, Iran’s leadership has shown no indication of stepping down despite the escalating conflict.
