Israel assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh this summer in Iran, defence minister Israel Katz has confirmed and threatened to take similar action against the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Haniyeh, the 62-year-old international face of the militant group, was killed in an airstrike in July during a visit to Tehran to attend the inauguration of its new president. Following the attack, Iran and Hamas had both accused Israel, but Benjamin Netanyahu's government refrained from accepting the allegations, although its members hinted at its involvement.
Haniyeh was one of the few Hamas leaders who said the group, while it rejects recognising Israel, doesn’t oppose a two-state solution.
Mr Katz on Monday said the Iran-backed Houthis would meet a similar fate as the other members of an Iranian-led alliance in the region, including Haniyeh. He also noted that Israel has killed other leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, helped topple Syria's Bashar al-Assad and destroyed Iran's anti-aircraft systems.
“We will strike (the Houthis’) strategic infrastructure and cut off the head of the leadership,” he said.
“Just like we did to Haniyeh, [Yahya] Sinwar and [Hassan] Nasrallah in Tehran, Gaza and Lebanon, we will do in Hodeida and Sanaa,” he said, referring to Hamas and Hezbollah leaders killed in previous Israeli attacks.
Since launching its retaliatory war in Gaza, Israel claims to have eliminated the leaders of militant groups including, Sinwar, the mastermind of the 7 October attack on Israel, and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an airstrike on a building complex in Beirut.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October last year, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostages. Around 100 captives are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Since then Israeli bombardment and ground offenses have killed more than 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Strip said. At least 90 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced by the Israeli bombardment of the territory, according to the UN.
Israel has since expanded its bombardment to Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
The Houthis have launched scores of missiles and drones at Israel throughout the war, including a missile that landed in Tel Aviv on Saturday and wounded at least 16 people. The Houthis have also been attacking shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden — attacks they say won’t stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
Israel has carried out three sets of airstrikes in Yemen during the war and vowed to step up the pressure on the rebel group until the missile attacks stop. Last week, Israel killed at least nine people in an airstrike on Yemen, the Associated Press reported.
