Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, has given the order for Iran to attack Israel directly in consequence for the death of Ismail Haniyeh (leader of Hamas) in Tehran.
The New York Times reported on this order, citing three Iranian officials who were briefed on it, including two Revolutionary Guard officers.
The directive came from Khamenei during an emergency meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on Wednesday morning, not long after Iran declared Haniyeh’s death.
Israel has been charged with the assassination by Iran and Hamas. Israel, which is at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has neither confirmed nor denied this.
According to the the New York Times, Israel has a notable history of assassinating adversaries abroad, including Iranian military officers and nuclear scientists.
Iran has attempted to achieve a balance over the nearly ten months of fighting in Gaza by increasing pressure on Israel through its friends and proxy forces in the area, all the while preventing a full-scale conflict between the two countries.
Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones in April in revenge for an Israeli raid on its embassy compound that killed senior Iranian military leaders in the Syrian capital of Damascus. This was Iran’s largest and most overt attack against Israel.
“At this point, it’s unknown how strongly Iran will react and whether it will again adjust its attack to prevent escalation. The Iranian authorities stated that while they would make a point of avoiding strikes on civilian targets, Iranian military commanders are thinking about carrying out another drone and missile combined attack on military objectives close to Tel Aviv and Haifa.
For greatest impact, they said, one possibility being considered is an aligned attack from Iran and other fronts where it has allied forces, such as Yemen, Syria, and Iraq.
According to the officials, military commanders of the Revolutionary Guards and the army have been instructed by Khamenei, who is the commander in chief of the armed forces and has the final say in all matters pertaining to the state, to make plans for both an attack and a defense in case the war escalates and Israel or the US strikes Iran.
“We see avenging his blood our duty,” Khamenei said in a public statement following Haniyeh’s murder, indicating that Iran would take direct revenge for the incident occurring on Islamic Republic territory. He claimed that Israel had prepared the ground for “a severe punishment,” according to the New York Times.
The New York Times claims that Iran, which is keen to demonstrate its might but hasn’t been able to stop Israel from conducting covert operations on its territory, was humiliated by the security lapse. Haniyeh’s notoriety, the presence of other associates, and the fact that he was attacked at a heavily guarded Revolutionary Guards guesthouse on a day when capital security was heightened all contributed to Iran’s humiliation.