Leader says all captains of criminal, Zionist, terrorist gang must be prosecuted

Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in a post published in Hebrew language on X, former Twitter, on Saturday.

“All the political and military captains of the criminal Zionist terrorist gang must be prosecuted,” the post read.יש להעמיד לדין את כל הקברניטים הפוליטיים והצבאיים של כנופיית הטרור הציונית הפושעת.

The post was published amid the Israeli regime’s October 2023-present war of genocide against the Gaza Strip, and the regime’s escalated deadly aggression towards Lebanon ever since as well as its many assassination operations throughout the region that has led to the martyrdom of venerable resistance commanders and other leaders.

The war has claimed the lives of at least 44,176 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded 104,473 others, in Gaza, while the escalation has killed more than 3,645 people across Lebanon.

The regime’s targeted killing operations have also martyred such resistance leaders as former Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, former Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and the former head of the Lebanese resistance movement’s Executive Council Sayyed Hashem Safieddine.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s comments came after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the regime’s former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant over war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Despite hailing the verdict as a “victory,” Iran has said the warrants should have also included "genocide" by the regime.

"Fourteen long months into the occupying regime's genocidal campaign in #Gaza, marked by the most harrowing atrocities, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I finally issued arrest warrants for the two top criminals #Netanyahu and #Gallant," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei wrote on X on Friday.

"Of course, their indictment should have included '#genocide' which is manifest," he added.