Israel decided to target Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei days after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, but detailed plans were only announced later, USA TODAY has learned.
Exclusive: Israel decides to kill Iranian leader after October 7 attack
An exclusive USA TODAY article has found that Israel has decided to kill the Iranian leader in 2023 after the October 7 terrorist attack.
- Israel decided to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei following the October 7 attack by Hamas.
- Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials were killed in a bombing campaign that began on February 28.
- U.S. and Israeli officials said the operation was aimed at removing key Iranian leaders and disrupting the country’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs.
The decision to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and leaders of Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah was made in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, when Israel decided to eliminate anyone involved in planning or supporting the devastating 2023 attacks, USA Today has learned.
But more specific plans for what Israel calls “Operation Roaring Lion” and the United States calls “Grand Fury” won’t begin until the end of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June 2025, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu only ordered the operation in November 2025.
USA TODAY was the first news outlet to report on the timing of the decision to remove Khamenei and other Iranian officials and its direct connection to revenge for the October 7 attack, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Khamenei was killed as part of a bombing campaign by US and Israeli forces that began on February 28.
Since its founding in 1948 after World War II, Israel has a long track record of capturing and assassinating enemies wherever they are. Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was captured by Israeli agents in Argentina in 1960 to stand trial in Israel. More than a decade later, Israel launched a secret mission to track down and kill Palestinian militants responsible for the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
The decision to kill Khamenei was made as part of Netanyahu’s order to target all those whom Israel believes were behind the October 7 attack and to prevent future attacks, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The targeting of Khamenei also appears to reflect Israel’s decision to expand its targeting to include Iran’s most senior leaders and Iranian-backed leaders starting October 7. Israel killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July 2024. Two months later, he assassinated long-time Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.
In recent years, Israel has used everything from letter bombs to exploding pagers and cell phones, from drone attacks to AI-backed machine guns operated from satellites mounted on trucks. Khamenei, who has led Iran for 36 years, was considered by Israel to be Hamas’s chief architect of the October 7 attack, or at least Iran’s most senior supporter. Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Khamenei, have publicly denied any direct involvement in the October 7 attack.
Iran has long funded and armed a web of extremist partners across the Middle East to strengthen its influence and strategic goals across the region. These include Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and Iraq’s multi-purpose armed group. Tehran has insisted that Iran’s nuclear program, which has long been a target of Israel, is only for civilian energy purposes, a claim that has been met with deep skepticism both in Israel and internationally. For decades, Khamenei and other Iranian government officials have repeatedly spoken publicly about the destruction or disappearance of the state of Israel.
The mission is aimed at killing key members of Iran’s leadership, destroying its ballistic missile capabilities and severely hampering Iran’s ability to advance its nuclear program, U.S. and Israeli officials said.
The killing of Ayatollah Khamenei and the death of Mohammad Pakpour, the supreme commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh. Mohammad Shirazi, Iranian Deputy Minister of Information. The attack was the result of a highly coordinated military operation and intensive intelligence cooperation between the United States and Israel leading up to the attack, according to people familiar with the matter.
The two allies pursued close intelligence sharing on Iranian leadership for the first time after last year’s 12-day war, which began on June 13, 2025, when Israel launched airstrikes against Iran’s military and nuclear infrastructure. The United States entered the war about a week later, targeting Iran’s three major nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
The New York Times became the first news outlet to report that the United States and Israel were working together to share information specifically locating the Iranian leader who was killed at a compound in central Tehran on February 28.
The October 7 attack shocked the world. Gaza-based fighters from Hamas and its smaller group, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, overwhelmed Israel’s defenses and rampaged through southern Israel for more than 24 hours, killing more than 1,200 Israelis and taking 250 hostages. Lebanon-based Hezbollah has also joined the conflict, firing rockets into northern Israel. Israel’s war to destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians and reduced the coastal enclave to rubble.
Officials’ claims that Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials were identified as targets for death in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack echo public comments by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials after the attack. As recently as February 28, Prime Minister Netanyahu described the Iranian regime as an “existential threat” to Israel.
He and other Israeli officials have used similar rhetoric about Iranian leadership and support for regional militant groups during their two decades at the top of Israeli politics. In 2002, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon argued that Iran should be number one on the Israeli military’s “to-do list.”
The operation to kill Khamenei and other Iranian officials began in Israel around 6 a.m. on February 28. The missile struck Khamenei’s compound at around 9:40 a.m. in Tehran. American and Israeli military planners had planned to carry out the operation under cover of darkness, but moved it to daylight to take advantage of new intelligence, people familiar with the matter said. The details were also first reported by the Times, which reported that Netanyahu ordered military leaders to begin planning an attack on Iran late last year.
According to a report in the Financial Times, Israel hacked traffic cameras in Tehran to monitor the daily lives of Ayatollah Khamenei and other Iranian officials in preparation for Operation Roaring Lion. This “pattern of life” included details about his security personnel, travel routes, hours of operation, and the identity of senior officials who typically accompany Iranian leaders.
Kim Hjelmgaard is an investigative journalist who covers global news from living rooms to war zones for USA TODAY. He is based in London.
