Israeli Airstrike Kills Houthi-Controlled Yemeni Prime Minister
An Israeli airstrike has killed the prime minister of the Houthi-run government in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, the group said.
Ahmed al-Rahawi died in the strike on Thursday along with several ministers, the Houthis announced on Saturday. Other officials were injured, according to their statement, though no further details were provided.
Mahdi al-Mashat, leader of the group’s supreme political council, stated: “We vow before God, the Yemeni people, and the families of the martyrs and wounded that we will retaliate.”
He also urged foreign companies to leave Israel “before it’s too late.”
Al-Rahawi and other officials were reportedly targeted during a government workshop reviewing past activities, the Houthis said.
The attack occurred as the group’s television channel broadcast a speech by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the elusive Houthi leader, in which he discussed developments in Gaza and pledged further attacks against Israel. Senior members often gathered to watch his recorded addresses.
Tribal leaders, speaking anonymously due to safety concerns, told the Associated Press that the strike hit a meeting of Houthi officials in a villa in Beit Baws, an old village south of Sana’a.
On Thursday, Israel’s military confirmed hitting a “Houthi military target in Sana’a” but did not comment on the prime minister's death.
“Yemen suffers greatly for the sake of Palestine,” al-Rahawi had said after an earlier strike on an oil facility and power plant controlled by the Houthis.
On 22 August, the Houthis fired a ballistic missile toward Israel—the first cluster munition attack since 2023, according to Israeli forces.
Al-Rahawi, from Abyan province, had been allied with former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh before siding with the Houthis during their 2014 takeover of Sana’a and much of northern and central Yemen. He became prime minister in August 2024.
His death marks the highest-ranking Houthi official killed since U.S. and Israeli strikes began in response to the group’s missile and drone attacks on Israel and Red Sea shipping. Previous strikes have caused numerous casualties, including one in April that hit a migrant detention center in Sadaa, killing at least 68 people and wounding 47.
Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst with Crisis Group International, a Brussels-based research organization,
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