Israel has repeatedly focused the Houthis in current months as tensions with the group enhance over the warfare in Gaza.
Revealed On 31 Aug 2025
The chief of Yemen’s Houthis, Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, has denounced Israel and signalled defiance, hailing assassinated authorities leaders as “the martyrs of all Yemen”, the day after the group confirmed the demise of its prime minister and different cupboard ministers.
“The Israeli enemy, with its crimes and savagery, doesn’t spare even kids, ladies and defenceless civilians,” he stated throughout his first speech on Sunday for the reason that Israeli strikes, in response to Houthi media.
“The crime of focusing on ministers and civilian officers is added to the felony report of the Israeli enemy within the area.”
The prime minister of the Houthis’ authorities within the capital, Sanaa, Ahmed Ghaleb al-Rahawi, was killed in a Thursday Israeli strike on Sanaa together with “a number of” different ministers, the Houthis stated in a press release on Saturday.
Al-Rahawi, who served as prime minister in areas of the divided nation that the group controls, was focused together with different members of the Houthi-led authorities throughout a workshop, the assertion stated.
Al-Houthi added that the “report of the Israeli enemy is certainly one of horrific terror” because it kills folks in Palestinian territory, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran. He referred to as Israel “a felony foe that demonstrates its savagery, criminality and aggression by means of practices that know no guidelines, no commitments, no charters and no concerns”.
The Houthi commander stated the group will preserve performing towards Israel in opposition to the warfare on Gaza in solidarity with Palestinians struggling, including that “our folks won’t be weakened by the aggression they’re dealing with”.
Israel has repeatedly focused Houthi positions in current months because the Yemeni group has launched assaults on Israel and on Western vessels within the Purple Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Quoting unnamed sources, Israeli media reported on Friday that the Israeli military attacked your entire Houthi cupboard, together with the prime minister and 12 different ministers, on Thursday.
The assault got here 4 days after Israeli strikes on the Yemeni capital on August 24 killed 10 folks and wounded greater than 90, in response to well being officers.
Houthi raids on UN places of work
In an obvious effort to tighten safety amid Israel’s assaults throughout Sanaa, the Houthis on Sunday raided places of work of the United Nations’ meals and youngsters’s companies in Yemen’s capital, detaining at the very least one UN worker, officers stated.
Ammar Ammar, a spokesperson for the UN Kids’s Fund (UNICEF), advised the Related Press that there was “an ongoing state of affairs” associated to their places of work in Sanaa, with out offering additional particulars.
The UN official stated contacts with a number of different World Meals Programme (WFP) and UNICEF staffers have been misplaced and that they have been doubtless additionally detained.
Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the WFP, advised the Related Press that safety forces additionally raided the companies’ places of work within the Houthi-controlled capital on Sunday morning.
“WFP reiterates that the arbitrary detention of humanitarian employees is unacceptable,” Etefa stated.
The raids are the most recent in a long-running Houthi crackdown towards the UN and different worldwide organisations working in rebel-held areas in Yemen.
They’ve detained dozens of UN staffers, in addition to folks related to help teams, civil society and the now-closed US Embassy in Sanaa.
In February, the UN additionally suspended its operations within the Houthi stronghold of Saada in northern Yemen after the Houthis detained eight UN staffers in January.
