‘Khamenei is modern Hitler,’ says Israeli defence minister after visiting ruins of Tel Aviv attack

Israel Defence Minister Katz said Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is “the modern Hitler” who has declared “destruction of Israel” as his horrific goal.

Speaking to journalists after visiting Holon, the site that was hit in the morning missile strike, Katz claimed that under the IDF war goals, “this man [Khamenei] must not stay alive.”

“A man like [Khamenei] has always aimed at destroying Israel through his agents. This man, who is willing to attack us, must not stay alive. This matter, the matter of stopping this man, eliminating him, is part of the campaign, and we now understand his role because before, he was talking about the destruction of Israel,” he said.

Katz compared the situation with the “horrific Holocaust,” when he said, “If Israel had existed and a strong IDF of Israel had existed, we could have sent the IDF into bunkers to capture the enemy of the Jewish people, Hitler, in order to thwart his plan to annihilate the Jews — we would have done it.”

Read: Trump vetoed Israeli plan to kill Iran's Khamenei, US officials told Reuters 

The Israeli minister believes that Iran’s Supreme Leader, “Khamenei is the modern Hitler,” for whom he would send the IDF to extract and eliminate.

He reiterated Israel’s view about Iran’s supreme leader, saying, “This is a man who has stood at the head of a powerful nation for decades and has great ideological influence. He uses it and openly says he supports the destruction of Israel.”

“He mobilises all available resources, even at the expense of his own people, for this purpose. And today we see proof that he is personally giving the order to fire on hospitals and residential buildings. These [repeated missile strikes on civilian targets] are not a statistical deviation that can be explained away, he sees this as part of the mission to destroy the State of Israel.”

Katz claimed “remove the nuclear threat, eliminate sources of destruction, and neutralise missile threats” is the only goal of Israel in the war with Iran, and that “the IDF has been instructed and knows how to achieve all the objectives.”