Yemeni media say Israel’s strike on Sanaa eliminated Houthi PM Ahmed al-Rahawi along with senior officials, in what appears to be one of the most devastating blows yet to the Iran-backed group.
Yemeni outlets hostile to the Houthis reported Friday morning that Ahmed al-Rahawi, the Houthi-appointed Prime Minister, was killed in an Israeli Air Force strike on Sanaa Thursday night.
According to Al-Jumhuriya TV, which broadcasts from Aden, al-Rahawi was in an apartment in the Bayt Baws neighborhood of the capital when the strike hit, killing him and several associates. The newspaper Aden al-Ghad echoed the report, saying the deaths occurred during a series of strikes that targeted senior regime officials.
Al-Rahawi, who had served just over a year as head of the Houthis’ unrecognized government, was largely viewed as an administrative figure rather than a political or military powerbroker. Still, his elimination would represent a major symbolic blow to the group’s governing apparatus.
Separately, the security-focused site Defence Line reported that senior officials were killed in another strike on a compound adjacent to the presidential palace complex in Sanaa — one of the key targets attacked by Israel.
Israeli officials confirmed that the strike was timed to coincide with a speech by Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, though the leader himself was not present. A security source said the primary target was a cabinet-style meeting of senior Houthi leaders, adding: “We estimate that we succeeded.”
Israel believes that among those eliminated were the Houthi Defense Minister and Chief of Staff, the latter already wounded in a previous Israeli strike.
The IDF confirmed it had struck a “Houthi terrorist regime military target” in the Sanaa area. Defense Minister Israel Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, and senior commanders approved the operation in consultation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Katz issued a stark warning afterward: “As we warned the Houthis in Yemen, after the Plague of Darkness comes the Plague of the Firstborn. Whoever raises a hand against Israel — his hand will be cut off.”
If confirmed, al-Rahawi’s death would mark one of Israel’s most significant strikes on Houthi leadership to date, escalating its campaign against Iran’s regional proxies.Yemeni outlets hostile to the Houthis reported Friday morning that Ahmed al-Rahawi, the Houthi-appointed Prime Minister, was killed in an Israeli Air Force strike on Sanaa Thursday night.
According to Al-Jumhuriya TV, which broadcasts from Aden, al-Rahawi was in an apartment in the Bayt Baws neighborhood of the capital when the strike hit, killing him and several associates. The newspaper Aden al-Ghad echoed the report, saying the deaths occurred during a series of strikes that targeted senior regime officials.
Al-Rahawi, who had served just over a year as head of the Houthis’ unrecognized government, was largely viewed as an administrative figure rather than a political or military powerbroker. Still, his elimination would represent a major symbolic blow to the group’s governing apparatus.
Separately, the security-focused site Defence Line reported that senior officials were killed in another strike on a compound adjacent to the presidential palace complex in Sanaa — one of the key targets attacked by Israel.
Israeli officials confirmed that the strike was timed to coincide with a speech by Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, though the leader himself was not present. A security source said the primary target was a cabinet-style meeting of senior Houthi leaders, adding: “We estimate that we succeeded.”
Israel believes that among those eliminated were the Houthi Defense Minister and Chief of Staff, the latter already wounded in a previous Israeli strike.
The IDF confirmed it had struck a “Houthi terrorist regime military target” in the Sanaa area. Defense Minister Israel Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, and senior commanders approved the operation in consultation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Katz issued a stark warning afterward: “As we warned the Houthis in Yemen, after the Plague of Darkness comes the Plague of the Firstborn. Whoever raises a hand against Israel — his hand will be cut off.”
If confirmed, al-Rahawi’s death would mark one of Israel’s most significant strikes on Houthi leadership to date, escalating its campaign against Iran’s regional proxies.
