{"id":91771,"date":"2026-02-28T18:28:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T23:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/?p=91771"},"modified":"2026-03-01T14:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T19:42:10","slug":"israel-says-iranian-supreme-leader-khamenei-killed-during-strikes-on-tehran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/israel-says-iranian-supreme-leader-khamenei-killed-during-strikes-on-tehran\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel says Iranian supreme leader Khamenei killed during strikes on Tehran"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By GRACE GILSON<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran\u2019s supreme leader, was killed Saturday morning during a joint U.S.-Israeli strike that hit targets throughout the country, Israeli officials have announced.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_91772\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2220307074.avif\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-91772\" class=\"wp-image-91772\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2220307074.avif\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-91772\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A demonstrator holds up a poster of Iran&#8217;s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during a protest against Israeli attacks on Iran, central Tehran, June 20, 2025. (Majid Saeedi\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In a televised address late Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were \u201cgrowing signs\u201d that Khamenei had been killed during an Israeli strike on his compound in Tehran. Shortly after the address, Israeli officials told Axios and the Associated Press that they had confirmed his death.<\/p>\n<p>The alleged death of Khamenei, 86, who has ruled Iran since 1989 and was one of the world\u2019s longest-serving authoritarian leaders, would serve as a major blow to the Islamic Republic regime, which Netanyahu and President Donald Trump both said they sought to topple in the strikes.<\/p>\n<p>Trump confirmed the death of Khamenei in a post on Truth Social, writing that it marked \u201cthe single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are hearing that many of their IRGC, Military, and other Security and Police Forces, no longer want to fight, and are looking for Immunity from us,\u201d wrote Trump, adding that the \u201cheavy and pinpoint\u201d bombing would continue in the country \u201cas long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Iran appeared to deny claims that Khamenei had died on Saturday, with Iranian state media reporting that a source close to Khamenei\u2019s office said, \u201cI can tell you with confidence that the leader of the revolution is steadfast and firm in commanding the field,\u201d according to Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>Khamenei reportedly appointed a deputy to succeed him ahead of the strikes. But the CIA has assessed that he may be replaced by hardline figures from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>Trump said he believed a large number of other Iranian officials were killed in the initial strikes, but neither he nor Israeli officials immediately named other officials they believed had been killed.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Israel%20says%20Iranian%20supreme%20leader%20Khamenei%20killed%20during%20strikes%20on%20Tehran\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":91772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,27,25],"tags":[3356,184,8781,8790,8795,8788,518],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91773,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91771\/revisions\/91773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}