Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has issued an order for Iran to strike Israel directly, in retaliation for the killing in Tehran of Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, according to three Iranian officials briefed on the order.

Khamenei gave the order at a meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on Wednesday morning, shortly after Iran announced that Haniyeh had been killed, said the three Iranian officials, including two members of the Revolutionary Guards.

Khamenei, who has the last word on all state matters and is also the commander in chief of the armed forces, instructed military commanders from the Revolutionary Guards and the army to prepare plans for both an attack and a defence in the event that the war expands.

In his public statement about Haniyeh’s death, Khamenei signalled that Iran would retaliate directly, saying, “we see avenging his blood our duty”, because it happened on the territory of the Islamic Republic. He said Israel had set the stage for receiving “a severe punishment”.