India, June 27 -- Israel had plans to assassinate Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during the recent 12-day war, but the right moment never came, according to the country's defense minister.

The Israeli military had been actively searching for Khamenei during the conflict, which ended earlier this week after a cease-fire was brokered with help from US President Donald Trump. Defense Minister Israel Katz, who had openly threatened to kill Khamenei, confirmed those efforts in a televised interview.

"I estimate that if Khamenei had been in our sights, we would have taken him out," he said. "But Khamenei understood this, went underground to very great depths and broke off contacts with the commanders who replaced those commanders ...