TEHRAN - Israeli War Minister Israel Katz attempted to walk back his earlier remarks on Monday, claiming in an X post that, contrary to his initial Hebrew statements, the regime has no intention of harming Iranian civilians.

Katz's initial comments, made after Iran's eighth strike on the occupied territories since the war's outbreak, declared that the "residents of Tehran" would "pay the price" for the successful offensive. The Hebrew statement, seemingly aimed at Israelis who had been spending hours in bomb shelters, soon circulated on Persian social media. This further undermined Israel's hopes of inciting coordinated unrest among Iranians, forcing Katz to take to X again, this time to "clarify" his position in English.

"I wish to clarify the obvious: there is no intention to physically harm the residents of Tehran," he wrote.

That assertion, however, rings hollow against a backdrop of repeated attacks on residential buildings and civilian infrastructure that have left at least 224 Iranian civilians dead since Israel's unprovoked killing campaign began on Friday.

Below is a partial list of ordinary citizens killed in Israeli attacks in Tehran alone:

- Mehdi Akbari Nasab and his wife

- Ehsan Eshraghi and his daughter

- Amir Ali Amini and his father

- Parnia Abbasi, her mother, father, and brother

- The Zenili family (parents and two kids)

- Dr. Marzieh Asgari

- Rayan Ghasemian

- Zahra Shams 

- Saleh Bairami

- Matin Safaeian

- Fereshteh Bagheri

- Majid Tajen Jari

- Maryam Minaei

- Mansoureh Alikhani

- Mehdi Pouladvand

- Mehnoosh Haji Soltani

- Mahya Nikzad

- Niloufar Ghalehvand