IRAN'S NEW SUPREME LEADER WAS WOUNDED ON DAY ONE OF THE WAR AND HAS NOT BEEN SEEN SINCE

Three days after being named supreme leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei has not spoken a single word in public.

No video address. No written statement. No appearance at any gathering. The 56-year-old son of the man whose death made him the most powerful figure in the Islamic Republic has been completely invisible since the Assembly of Experts selected him on March 8.

On Wednesday, the reason became public.

According to The New York Times, citing three Iranian officials and two Israeli military officials, Mojtaba Khamenei was wounded in the same February 28 strike that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The strike on a leadership compound in Tehran also killed his mother, his wife, one of his sons, and several senior Iranian defense officials.

Khamenei survived, but suffered injuries to his legs, according to the Iranian officials. He was conscious afterward and has been sheltering at a heavily secured location with restricted communication channels, they said.

WHAT THE IRANIANS ARE SAYING

CNN reported separately, citing a source, that Khamenei sustained a fractured foot, a bruise around his left eye, and minor lacerations to his face.

Yousef Pezeshkian, the son of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and a government adviser, became the first figure close to the regime to publicly address the question. Writing on his Telegram channel on Wednesday, he said: "I heard news that Mr. Mojtaba Khamenei had been injured. I have asked some friends who had connections. They told me that, thank God, he is safe and sound."

Iranian state television had previously referred to Khamenei as a "wounded veteran of the Ramadan war" without elaborating. The phrase "janbaz jang," a Persian term reserved for those injured in combat, had been used in official messaging from Iran's Komiteh Emdad, a state welfare body.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that another Iranian source described injuries to his "legs and hand and arm" and suggested he was in a hospital. "I don't think he is in any condition to give a speech," the source said.

WHAT ISRAEL IS SAYING

The two Israeli military officials who spoke to The New York Times said Israel's intelligence assessment, made before Khamenei was formally selected as supreme leader, concluded that he had been wounded on February 28.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz had already declared that any successor to the elder Khamenei would be targeted. Israel has publicly identified Mojtaba Khamenei as its number one target inside Iran, according to multiple reports.

The Times also reported that Iranian officials believe a second Israeli strike on Friday, March 7, targeted Mojtaba Khamenei directly, striking the supreme leader's office and residence. He was not present at the time.

THE SILENCE

When asked on Tuesday whether Khamenei had begun functioning as supreme leader and commander in chief of Iran's armed forces, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei evaded the question. "Those who need to receive the message have received the message," he said, according to the Times.

Khamenei has historically maintained a low profile. He rarely, if ever, delivered public addresses. But the current silence is different. He is now the supreme leader of a country at war, under bombardment, and the fact that he cannot or will not appear is being watched closely by allies and adversaries alike.

Emile Hokayem, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, told the Times he expected Khamenei "to sit in a bunker somewhere for a very long time because he saw what happened to his father, his wife, his mother who were all killed in the initial attack."

THE SUCCESSION UNDER FIRE

The elder Khamenei was killed on February 28, the first day of the US-Israeli strikes, designated as "Operation Epic Fury" by the Pentagon and "Operation Roaring Lion" by Israel. Within days, Mojtaba Khamenei's name emerged as the leading candidate to succeed him, given his deep ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and his role as a behind-the-scenes power broker in Iran's security establishment.

The Assembly of Experts, the 88-member clerical body responsible for selecting the supreme leader, formally chose him on March 8. Within hours, the president, the IRGC, and the armed forces pledged full allegiance, according to Al Jazeera.

His face has since appeared on large banners and murals across Tehran, one showing him symbolically receiving the national flag from his late father while the founding leader of the Islamic Republic, Ruhollah Khomeini, looks on from above.

But behind the imagery, the reality is a wounded leader in hiding, with no clear timeline for a public appearance, and an adversary that has made killing him an explicit operational priority.