Israeli airstrike in Sanaa reportedly kills Houthi-backed Yemeni prime minister

Yemeni media outlets hostile to the Houthi movement are reporting that Ahmed al-Rahawi, the Houthi-aligned prime minister, was killed Thursday in an Israeli strike on the capital city of Sanaa. Several of his close associates are also said to have died in the attack.

According to Al-Jumhuriya, a channel broadcasting from Aden, al-Rahawi was inside an apartment in the Bayt Baws neighborhood when the strike hit. The newspaper Aden al-Ghad carried similar reports, stating that the prime minister was killed alongside multiple aides.

Al-Rahawi had held the post for roughly a year under the unrecognized Houthi administration, largely serving in an administrative role rather than exercising military or political power.

The Yemeni security website Defence Line also suggested that senior Houthi officials may have been killed in a separate strike on a building within a security complex near the presidential palace. That site was among several targeted on Thursday, during an address by Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.

A Yemeni security source described the main objective as a gathering of top Houthi figures — a meeting likened to a cabinet session attended by both military commanders and government ministers. The source remarked, “We estimate that we succeeded.”

Israeli officials believe the Houthi defense minister and chief of staff — the latter previously wounded in an earlier Israeli operation — were among those eliminated. However, the group’s leader was reportedly not present.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that it struck a “Houthi terrorist regime military target” in the Sanaa area.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said he approved the operation together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, and senior commanders. Katz warned, “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.”