Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with Iran’s parliament members in Tehran, Iran, July 21, 2024. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

The so-called “supreme leader” of Iran, which backs the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists fighting Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, said on Monday that death sentences should be issued for Israeli leaders, not arrest warrants.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was commenting on a decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense chief Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri.

“They issued an arrest warrant, that’s not enough … Death sentence must be issued for these criminal leaders“, Khamenei said, referring to the Israeli leaders.

Khamenei made the comment on Monday while speaking before a gathering in Tehran of Basij forces, the paramilitary arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an Iranian military force and internationally designated terrorist organization.

“Iran’s Basij will definitely succeed in destroying the Zionist regime one day,” he added, according to Iranian media. What the Zionist regime did in Gaza and Lebanon is not victory; it is a war crime. They are fools and should not believe that by bombing houses, hospitals, and congregations they are achieving victory. Nobody considers that victory.”

In their decision, the ICC judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution, and starvation as a weapon of war as part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza.”

The decision was met with outrage in Israel, which called it shameful and absurd. Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.

The warrant for Masri lists charges of mass killings during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, and also charges of rape and the taking of hostages.

Israel has said it killed Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike in July but Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied this.