Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks during a speech at the joint graduation ceremony for the cadets studying in the academies of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Armed Forces on Tuesday morning.

Since the beginning of Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, “the occupying Zionist regime has suffered an irrevocable defeat both in terms of military and intelligence,” he said.

The Leader then noted that while everyone talked about the “defeat”, he would emphasize the “irrevocability” of it.

“I say that this devastating earthquake has managed to destroy some of the main structures of the occupying regime’s rule, which cannot be rebuilt so easily,” he remarked.

“We kiss the foreheads and arms of the resourceful and intelligent designers [of the operation] and the Palestinian youth, but those who say that the recent great event is the work of non-Palestinians are making miscalculations.”

The Zionist regime carried out deadly strikes on the densely-populated Gaza Strip on Saturday after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, a surprise attack, in the occupied territories.

Hamas said that its operation was a response to the regime’s violations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East al-Quds.

“The Zionists brought this disaster on themselves through their actions,” Ayatollah Khamenei argued. “When cruelty and crime exceed the limit, when ferocity reaches its peak, one should await the storm.”

He maintained the Palestinians’ brave move was a response to the atrocities of the occupying enemy, which he said had been going on for years and intensified in recent months.

The current administration ruling the occupying regime is also to blame, he added.

‘No one can portray Zionist regime as innocent’

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Supreme Leader referred to attempts to whitewash Israeli crimes and portray the regime as innocent, saying, “Now that the evil and cruel enemy has been slapped, it has resorted to a policy of depicting itself as innocent.”

In this path, he continued, others, including the media of the Global Arrogance, also helped the regime.

He hastened to add, however, that such attempts to portray the regime as innocent are based on lies and distortions and are doomed to fail.

“Just because the Palestinian Mujahideen (resistance fighters) managed to get out of the siege of Gaza and reach the military and civilian centers of the Zionists, should [the regime] be called innocent?”

“Whatever the occupying regime is, it is not innocent. It is cruel, aggressive, ignorant, and talking gibberish, but not innocent. No one can turn this hideous monster into an innocent face.”