An Israel Defense Forces strike killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, an Israeli official told local media on Saturday night.
According to Israel’s Channel 12, the body of the 86-year-old, described as riddled with shrapnel, was recovered from the rubble after his compound in Tehran was targeted during the opening phase of “Operation Roaring Lion.”
Documentation supporting the assessment was in Israel’s possession and had been presented to the prime minister and senior members of the security establishment, the reports said.
“We are speaking about Khamenei—the Hitler of the 2000s—and this is one of the reasons the State of Israel was created, after Hitler murdered six million of our people,” Likud legislator Moshe Passal told JNS on Saturday night. “When there is someone preparing a [nuclear] weapon and saying that he will destroy all the Jews in the world, this is the inevitable side to be on.
“We need to be thankful to God that we are living in these times,” he continued. “My grandmother was in Auschwitz; she would have wanted the fighter jets of Israel and our strong army to exist at that time. Thank God, we have the possibility to fight our enemies and crush them.
“It’s very clear to me that we have the hand of God helping us,” Passal added.
Satellite images published earlier Saturday by The New York Times showed extensive destruction at the Iranian leader’s compound, including collapsed structures and a large plume of black smoke rising from the fortified complex, which serves as both Khamenei’s primary residence and the site where he receives senior regime officials.
An Israeli official confirmed that several senior Iranian leaders were targeted in the airstrikes carried out by the IDF.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei told the BBC on Saturday that he was “not in a situation to confirm anything” regarding the strike targeting the country’s senior leadership.
BBC: Can you confirm whether the top leadership is still alive, or where they are?
— Clash Report (@clashreport) February 28, 2026
Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei: I’m not in a position to confirm anything. pic.twitter.com/vwow1O9r22
A central objective of the first joint wave of attacks was to hit as many leaders as possible, according to three Israeli security officials familiar with the operations, the Times reported, adding that Jerusalem “expected the assault to last several days.”
The United States and Israel launched a preemptive strike on Saturday morning, following months of confrontation across multiple fronts and repeated warnings that the Islamic Republic’s military and nuclear infrastructure could become direct targets if hostilities intensified.
Likud Party lawmaker Dan Illouz told JNS on Saturday night that the Jewish state is confronting what he described as a cornered and desperate regime firing ballistic missiles at its cities.
“We will need patience, we will hear sirens, and the public must strictly follow Home Front Command directives. But we absolutely cannot let the tactical difficulties of the next few days obscure the historic paradigm shift happening right now,” he said.
“We are witnessing the birth of a new Middle East. Once this regime falls, my vision is that we will soon sign the ‘Cyrus Accords.’ Just as the Abraham Accords transformed our region, the Cyrus Accords will establish a historic peace between the Jewish state and a newly freed, democratic Iranian republic, renewing the ancient and deep bond between our two peoples,” Illouz continued.
He said the ultimate objective of the operation must be full regime change.
“Israel cannot settle for merely degrading their nuclear sites or temporarily destroying ballistic missile capabilities,” he said. “As long as the ayatollahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hold power, they will simply rebuild their terror network and continue to threaten the free world.”
He added that “the international community wasted years begging for a diplomatic fix in Geneva. That era of appeasement is over. The only way to guarantee the security of the State of Israel and bring true stability to the Middle East is the complete collapse of this radical Islamic terror cult, giving the Iranian people the opportunity to take their country back.”
Illouz stated that “the disruption we are facing right now is a small price to pay to ensure our children never have to live under the shadow of a nuclear-armed Iran. We took our fate into our own hands, and we will emerge from this victorious.”
Likud lawmaker Tally Gotliv told JNS that the people of Israel are “strong and courageous.”
“Blessed be the good and beneficent God for the hidden and overt miracles,” she said.
Gotliv emphasized that only Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would have been capable—“with great courage and wisdom”—of leading an operation of immense importance aimed at eliminating Iran’s existential threat to Israel.
“Israel is doing the unbelievable again,” she said.
