Vowing revenge against Israel over the killing of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued an order for Iran to strike Israel directly.
Khamenei gave the order at an emergency meeting of Iran's Supreme National Security Council on Wednesday morning, reported the New York Times quoting three Iranian officials briefed on the order.
The meeting was convened shortly after Iran announced the Haniyeh had been killed, the report added.
While it is unclear the intensity with which Iran plans to respond, it would make a point of avoiding strikes on civilian targets, the Iranian officials said, as per the report. One option under consideration is a coordinated attack from Iran and other fronts where it has allied forces, including Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, for maximum effect.
The Supreme Leader, who is also the commander in chief of the armed forces, instructed military commanders from the Revolutionary Guards and the army to prepare plans for both an attack and a defence if the war expands and Israel or the United States strike Iran, the officials added.
Khamenei signalled in his public statement on Haniyeh's death that Iran would retaliate directly, saying, “We see avenging his blood our duty,” because it happened on the territory of the Islamic Republic.
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Israel had set the stage for receiving a "severe punishment", he remarked.
While Israel has denied comment on the foreign media reports, Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of the assassination. Israel has a long history of killing enemies abroad, including Iranian scientists and military commanders.
Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian when he was assassinated which came hours after Israel said it killed a Hezbollah commander stoking further tensions in the region.