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One Israel Air strikes were carried out targeting top leaders of yemenHouthi rebels killed their army’s chief of staff in August, officials said Thursday, further escalating tensions between the group and Israel, while a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip continues.
The Houthis have acknowledged the killing of Major General Muhammad Abdul Karim al-Ghamari, which was approved united nations On his role in the country’s decades-old war.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that al-Ghamari died of wounds sustained in the attack and that he had joined “his fellow members of the axis of evil in the depths of hell.”
Katz referred to the attack as “the strike of the firstborn”, possibly a reference to a series of attacks carried out by Israel on 28 August. That attack killed Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi and others. However, analysts suggested that al-Ghamari may have been injured in a separate attack targeting the clandestine group.
Prime Minister benjamin netanyahu It also acknowledged that Israel had killed al-Ghamari.
“Another chief of staff has been removed from the ranks of terrorist chiefs who aim to harm us,” Netanyahu said. “We will reach them all.”
Houthis offer some details
In a statement carried by the Houthi-controlled SABA news agency, the militants said al-Ghamari was killed along with his 13-year-old son Hussein and “several of his companions”. It did not elaborate on the date of the attack, nor identify other people killed in the attack.
“His holy spirit was exalted while he was in the midst of his jihadi work,” SABA said.
The United Nations, while sanctioning al-Ghamari, described him as “playing a leading role in organizing the Houthis’ military efforts, which directly threaten the peace, security and stability of Yemen, as well as through cross-border attacks against Saudi Arabia.”
The US Treasury also said al-Ghamari was “responsible for orchestrating attacks by Houthi forces affecting Yemeni civilians” when imposing sanctions on him in 2021. It described him as having received training from Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group and Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
“As Chief of the General Staff of the Houthi Armed Forces, the most senior commander within the Houthi military leadership structure, al-Ghamari is directly responsible for overseeing Houthi military operations that have destroyed civilian infrastructure and those of Yemen’s neighbors,” particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Treasury said at the time.
The Israeli military described al-Ghamari as “responsible for hundreds of missiles and (drone) strikes launched toward Israeli civilians and the State of Israel”.
Al-Ghamri also led a Houthi offensive targeting Yemen’s energy-rich Marib province.
At the time of approval, the treasury had given his year of birth as 1979 or 1984. His other survivors were not immediately known.
Another SABA statement said al-Ghamari would be replaced by Major General Youssef Hassan al-Madani. He was sanctioned by the US along with al-Ghamari for his work as “a key Houthi military leader”, who commanded the rebels’ fifth military region, including the major. red sea The port city of Hodeida.
Death comes as Gaza ceasefire comes into force
It is unclear how the Houthis will respond. The group rose to international prominence due to its attacks during the Israel–Hamas war, which it said were aimed at forcing Israel to cease fighting. Since the ceasefire began on October 10, there have been no Houthi attacks targeting Israel or shipping.
At least nine sailors were killed and four ships were sunk in the Houthi campaign against shipping. It disrupted shipping in the Red Sea, through which about $1 trillion of goods passed each year before the war. The most recent attack by rebels involved an attack on the Dutch-flagged cargo ship Minervagracht on September 29, killing one crew member and wounding another.
Meanwhile, the Houthis have repeatedly threatened Saudi Arabia and detained dozens of workers for UN agencies and other aid groups, alleging without evidence that they were spies – a charge the world body and others strongly deny.
Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the Houthi secret leader, claimed in a televised speech on Thursday, without providing evidence, that “the most dangerous spy cells that became active include those associated with organizations working in the humanitarian sector, particularly the World Food Program and UNICEF.”
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric strongly rejected al-Houthi’s comments.
“The allegations are extremely disturbing,” he said. “They are extremely worrying from the leadership. And the allegations, calling UN staff spies or, as we have seen in other contexts, calling them terrorists – all of this puts the lives of UN staff everywhere at risk, and it is unacceptable.”
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Associated Press writer Zvi Smith in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed to this report.