Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz on Monday renews his threats against Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, warning the Islamic Republic’s ruler to “lift his eyes to the sky and listen carefully to every buzz” — an apparent reference to Israeli drones — and reviving his threat to assassinate him.

The threat came in response to what Katz said was Iranian propaganda graphic circulating in Hebrew, labeling senior Israeli officials as assassination targets. The list included Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Israeli Air Force chief Tomer Bar, and Katz himself — identified in the graphic as “Terror Minister Israel Katz.”

Katz said the image was a knockoff of Israeli kill-notice graphics issued during the June 12-day Israel-Iran war, when Jerusalem struck dozens of senior Iranian military figures in Tehran. It was unclear how widely the Iranian version circulated before Katz reposted it.

In his post on X, Katz warned Khamenei that “participants of the ‘Red Wedding’ are waiting for him,” invoking the code name for Israel’s opening blitz in the June war. That operation, modeled after an infamous massacre scene from a TV show, killed roughly 30 senior Iranian commanders, including the country’s three top generals, and crippled Iran’s command structure for nearly a day.

Katz has repeatedly threatened to eliminate Khamenei. In late July, he warned that “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.” During the June war, Katz said Israel actively sought to assassinate Khamenei but was unable to locate him, calling the supreme leader a “modern Hitler” whose continued existence posed an existential threat to Israel.

Multiple reports during the conflict claimed Israel had an opportunity to kill Khamenei in the war’s opening hours but that U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed the strike. Trump later hinted at such a decision, writing 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.” Israeli officials have been divided on whether such an opportunity truly existed, with some denying the reports outright and others refusing to comment.

Tensions between Jerusalem and Tehran have remained high since the June conflict, which Israel launched claiming to neutralize an imminent nuclear and missile threat. Iranian state media has since amplified messages vilifying Netanyahu, including a new Tehran billboard in Persian calling him “Hitanyahu” and, in Hebrew, “Germany’s Nazi of today.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)