The sons of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been targeted for assassination by Iran.
Photos of the two young men, viewed through sniper scopes with crosshairs superimposed on them, were published on the Iranian news website Mashregh, affiliated with the militant Revolutionary Guard Corps, with the warning, "We must await the hunt of Hezbollah,"
The Free Beacon reports.
Netanyahu's sons, Avner and Yair, were chosen as assassination targets, the website states, because of their affiliation with top Israeli leaders.
Iran's state-controlled Fars News Agency also ran the article and the photos.
The article, entitled, "The File of the Zionist Children," states, "It is worth mentioning that these excellences of Zionism were not directly involved in the war against the forces of resistance and they have not taken up arms, and some by account of their own words are against Zionist radicalism,” the Free Beacon reported.
“However, they have three years of mandatory service in the army of this regime in their records."
The threat is believed to have been issued in retaliation for a Jan. 18 airstrike in the Golan Heights in Syria which killed prominent Hezbollah figures, including Jihad Mughniyeh, son of the late Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh, and an Iranian general, Mohammed Ali Allahdadi,
Israel Hayom reported.
Along with Netanyahu's sons, the article also called for the assassination of Gilad and Omri Sharon, sons of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and Shaul Olmert, son of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,
JNS reported.
Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) told the Free Beacon, "All the outpouring and statements by Iran’s political and military elite is meant to establish the deterrent power of the Islamic Republic. Such power is designed to instill the fear of reprisal, without having to bear the costs of engaging in one.
"Mashregh News has chosen to explicitly demonstrate that deterrent power in a sickening retaliatory fashion, weighing the perceived benefits of some of the assassinations from the perspective of the ‘resistance.'
"In a not-so-subtle manner, the article attempts to force a linkage between the reported 'mandatory military service' of the children and becoming a target.
"The question now becomes, will Hezbollah or Iran choose to escalate from this appalling form of psychological warfare?"
Netanyahu recently blamed Iran for an attack on the Israel/Lebanon border which killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded seven,
Fox News reported.
"This is the same Iran that is now trying to achieve an agreement, via the major powers, that would leave it with the ability to develop nuclear weapons, and we strongly oppose this agreement," Netanyahu said.
"We will continue to defend ourselves against all threats, near and far alike," he said.