Hezbollah says threats to kill Khamenei 'foolish and reckless'

Hezbollah condemned Thursday Israel's threats to kill Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after an Israeli hospital was hit during an Iranian missile attack.

"Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed -- he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals. He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal," Israel's defense minister Israel Katz told journalists in Holon near Tel Aviv. "Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist."

Hezbollah said the Israeli threat is "foolish and reckless" and "would have grave consequences".

It "constitutes an offence to hundreds of millions of believers", the group added.

Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani also warned against targeting Iran's leadership and said it would have "dire consequences on the region".

Sistani, an Iranian, is the highest religious authority for millions of Shiite Muslims in Iraq and around the world, with the power to mobilize a huge portion of that base in Iraq.

Despite his Iranian roots, Sistani is seen as an essential figure in Iraq's recent history and has been known for pushing back against Tehran's growing clout in the country.

Shiite Muslim clerics rallied late Wednesday, wearing military fatigues in southern Iraq, near the Iranian border. They held Iraqi and Iranian flags and shouted slogans condemning Israel's attack.