Israel says Iran's Supreme Leader avoided assassination by going underground

Netanyahu and Trump have both suggested that Khamenei's life could be in danger

A demonstrator holds a portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as Iraqi people attend a rally to show solidarity with Iran, amid the Iran-Israel conflict, in the Shia district of Kadhimiya, Baghdad, Iraq, Jun 21, 2025. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad

Israel would have killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were it possible during the countries' 12-day war, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday.

"I estimate that if Khamenei had been in our sights, we would have taken him out," Katz said in the interview with Israel's Kan public television.

"But Khamenei understood this, went underground to very great depths, and broke off contacts with the commanders who replaced those commanders who were eliminated, so it wasn’t realistic in the end," he said.

Israel killed several top Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists on June 13 at the start of the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump had both suggested at various times during the air war that Khamenei's life could be in danger as regime change could be a result of the war that ended with a US-brokered ceasefire on Tuesday.