On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a stark warning aimed at Iran’s leadership. He declared that any Iranian official who fosters ambitions to annihilate Israel will meet the same fate as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose funeral was underway in Tehran.
In a Hebrew-language communiqué, Katz detailed that Ayatollah Khamenei was targeted by Israel due to his pivotal role in orchestrating a strategy to obliterate Israel, both within Iran and across its neighboring regions.
Katz emphasized, “The destroyer has been destroyed.” He firmly stated that any future attempts by Iranian leaders to renew plans for Israel’s destruction would be met with the same decisive action.
He also pointed to the funeral chants of “Death to Trump” as indicative of the regime’s genuine nature, which he argued contrasts sharply with its public façade of diplomatic friendliness and deceit.
Katz praised the robust actions taken against Iran, guided by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump, asserting that these measures have neutralized immediate existential threats to Israel and substantially weakened Iran’s strategic position. He reiterated Israel’s readiness to defend itself independently whenever necessary and against any form of threat.
A funeral procession for Khamenei kicked off the fourth day of week-long burial ceremonies on Monday morning.
Khamenei’s remains are set to be taken through the streets of Tehran on their way to Mehrabad International Airport in the western part of the capital.
The funeral cortege will last some 10 to 12 hours, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Brig. Gen. Hassan Hassanzadeh, who is overseeing the event, told state media.
Hassanzadeh said preparations for the procession began at 4 a.m. local time and that the procession would move from east to west.
Regime supporters lined the streets of Tehran early Monday, many carrying red flags symbolizing revenge, the IRGC-linked Fars News Agency reported.
Khamenei’s funeral ceremonies have been marked by repeated calls from Iranian officials, state media and regime supporters for the deaths of President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Brig. Gen. Mohammad Akraminia, spokesman for the Islamic Republic of Iran Army, said on Monday that Tehran had used the ceasefire with the United States to rebuild its military capabilities, according to Iran International.
“We are fully prepared and have used the ceasefire opportunity to improve our combat capability,” he said, warning that any attack on Iran would be met with a response “more crushing and more regret-inducing than before.”
The funeral ceremonies are scheduled to run through Thursday, when Khamenei is to be buried at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad.
Mojtaba Khamenei, who was appointed as the Islamic Republic’s third supreme leader following his father’s death, had not been seen at the ceremonies.
Three of Ali Khamenei’s other sons — Mostafa, Masoud and Meysam Hosseini Khamenei — appeared in public on Sunday for the first time since the war began on Feb. 28, offering prayers over their father’s body at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla of Tehran mosque, Iran International reported.
The New York Times, citing two members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a source involved in planning the funeral, reported that Mojtaba Khamenei told officials he wants to attend the burial ceremony in Mashhad and lead the traditional prayer for the dead.
The newspaper cited the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the funeral preparations, as saying security officials had rejected the proposal over concerns Israel could attempt to assassinate the supreme leader at the ceremony or use it to track his whereabouts.
The younger Khamenei was injured in the airstrike that killed his father.
While it is generally believed that Mojtaba is still alive, he has not appeared in public since the start of the war, and no images or audio recordings of him have been released.