Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted that Israel is “doing what no one has done before us” after a successful airstrike eliminated the Houthi prime minister in Yemen’s capital. The death of Ahmed Ghaleb Al Rahwi was presented by Netanyahu as a “fatal blow” and the start of a broader campaign against the rebel leadership.
This aggressive military action follows a sustained period of Houthi hostility, including weekly missile launches aimed at Israel and attacks on commercial vessels, which the group links to the Palestinian cause in Gaza. These actions have depleted Israel’s valuable interceptor missile stockpiles.
The strike is being viewed as a testament to Israel’s enhanced intelligence network, which successfully located and targeted a clandestine meeting of Houthi leaders 2,000km away. Nevertheless, the group’s chief of staff and defense minister, who are central to the anti-Israel operations, were not hit.
The Houthis have officially announced the death of their prime minister and have sworn revenge. Yoel Guzansky, a senior researcher at INSS, called the attack “remarkable” but cautioned that eliminating specific leaders, while disruptive, may not be enough to alter the group’s deep-seated motivations.