Israel claims that Iran’s new supreme leader was wounded in both legs on his father’s birthday in airstrikes, warning that he could be next.

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, who has not been seen in public or photographed since succeeding his late father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday, was described as a ‘wounded veteran’ of the war by Iranian state television.

According to Israeli and Iranian officials quoted in the New York Times, Mojtaba was wounded in the legs on the first day of the conflict.

According to the report, his injuries may be the reason for his absence from the public eye, but others believe he wants to avoid the spotlight of Israel and the United States.

The Iranian officials claim he remains alert and is sheltering at a highly secure location with limited communication.

The cleric has been marked for assassination by Israel after it vowed to ‘eliminate’ whoever succeeded the slain Ayatollah, having killed him, Mojtaba’s wife Zahra Haddad-Adel, and one of his sons in strikes on Tehran on the first day of the war.

Donald Trump also ramped up his threats against the supreme leader, claiming he won’t be able to ‘live in peace’ and warning Iran to brace for ‘death, fire and fury.’    

In one report on Mojtaba’s ascension to the supreme leader on Iranian state TV, it refers to him as being wounded in the war.

The anchor describes him as ‘janbaz’, or wounded by the enemy, in the ‘Ramadan war,’ which is how media in Iran refer to the current conflict.

It did not elaborate on how he was injured, although his wife and father were k!lled in Israeli strikes.

Komiteh Emdad, a powerful government religious charity, also branded Mojtaba a ‘janbaz jang’, the Persian term for a veteran wounded in war.

But the supreme leader is ‘safe and sound’ according to Yousef Pezeshkian, son of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.