Israel brands Iran's supreme leader Khamenei as ‘modern Hitler' who ‘cannot continue to exist'
Israel on Thursday branded Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 'the modern Hitler' who 'cannot continue to exist' after the latest wave of Iranian missiles struck a hospital, wounding dozens of civilians.
'A dictator like Khamenei, who heads a country like Iran and has made the destruction of Israel his mission, cannot continue to exist,' Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said as he toured the damaged hospital.
'The IDF has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist.'
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4 Defense Minister Israel Katz at the scene of an Iranian missile strike in Holon, on June 19, 2025.
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He compared Khamenei to the Nazi leader — and insisted that the Israel Defense Forces would never allow a repeat of Adolf Hitler's Holocaust.
'I compare it to the scenario in which, during the horrific Holocaust, if the State of Israel had existed and a strong Israel Defense Forces had existed, and we knew we could send the IDF into a bunker to capture the enemy of the Jewish people, Hitler, in order to thwart his plan to annihilate the Jews, we would have done it,' he said.
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4 Smoke rises from a building of the Soroka hospital complex after it was hit by a missile fired from Iran in Be'er Sheva, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025.
AP
4 An Iranian missile strikes a hospital in Beersheba, Israel, on the morning of June 19, 2025.
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'We would have sent the IDF, extracted him, and eliminated him. And just like that, correspondingly, I see the current situation — Khamenei is the modern Hitler.'
US officials said this week that President Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Khamenei.
Trump later said there were no plans to kill him 'at least not for now.'
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Meanwhile, Katz lashed out as he condemned the latest missile barrage from Iran that damaged the Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba and hit a high-rise and several other residential buildings near Tel Aviv.
4 Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses the nation in a state television broadcast on June 18, 2025 in Tehran, Iran.
Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran via Getty Images
Israel carried out strikes on Iran's Arak heavy water reactor in its latest attack on the country's sprawling nuclear program.
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