Israel admits killing Hamas leader Haniyeh for the first time Israel-Palestine conflict news

Defense Minister Israel Katz has warned the Houthi rebels that Israel will “cut off the heads” of their leaders, just like it did to Hamas.

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz publicly admitted for the first time that his country had killed Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, and warned that a “serious blow” would be dealt to the Houthis in Yemen.

Speaking at an event in honor of Defense Department employees Monday evening, Katz said that Israel “struck the axis of evil and we will also strike the Houthi terrorist organization in Yemen, which is the last stop.” .

“When the Houthi terrorist organization launches rocket attacks on Israel, I want to give them a clear message at the beginning of my speech: We have defeated Hamas, we have defeated Hezbollah, we have blinded Iran’s defense systems and damaged its production systems. We overthrew the (Bashar al-) Assad regime in Syria,” Katz said.

“Israel will damage (the Houthis’) strategic infrastructure and we will decapitate their leaders – just as we did to Haniyeh, Sinwar and Nasrullah in Tehran, Gaza and Lebanon – we will do the same in (Yemen’s) Hodeidah and Sana’a,” Katz added. Nasrullah, referring to the subsequent killing of Hamas’s Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar, and Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan.

The Houthis have launched numerous missile attacks on Israel in recent months, including one that struck Tel Aviv on Saturday using what the Houthis described as a hypersonic ballistic missile.

More than a dozen people were slightly injured after the rocket evaded Israeli defense systems and hit a public park in Jaffa.

Haniya was killed on July 31 while traveling to Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of the Iranian president. Masoud Pezeshkian.

According to Iranian state media at the time, the Hamas leader and bodyguard was killed by an “air-guided missile” at a private residence for military veterans north of Tehran at around 2 a.m. local time.

Iranian and Palestinian officials have blamed Israel for the plot, but Israeli officials have so far neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

Haniyeh’s killing sparked outrage across Palestine and raised fears of a wider regional conflict as Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed “severe punishment” in response.

In October, Iran launched rocket attacks on a number of Israeli cities in response to the killing of the leaders of its allies Hamas and Hezbollah.

The Israeli military said only “a few” strikes were reported in the central and southern regions of the country, while Israel’s emergency services said two people were wounded by shrapnel in the Tel Aviv area.

No Israelis were reported dead. Palestinian officials said one person was killed when debris fell in the occupied West Bank.