Israel promised to “behead” the leaders of Houthi rebels as the terror organisation launched its latest ballistic missile at the country on Monday.
Rocket sirens went off in parts of the Negev desert and central Israel at 1.45am, forcing millions of Israelis to take cover in bomb shelters. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the missile was intercepted by the air-defence system “prior to crossing into Israeli territory”.
This marks the third time the Houthis launched ballistic missiles at Israel in the past week. Hezam al-Asad, a senior Houthi official, issued a statement shortly after saying the missile attacks on Israel will continue until the war in Gaza stops.
“Netanyahu will learn that his dreams of a new Middle East are nothing but a punishment for him and his imported entity,” Mr Asad tweeted.
Yisrael Katz, Israel’s defence minister, warned the terror group’s leaders they would be “beheaded just like we did to Haniyeh, Sinwar and Nasrallah in Tehran, Gaza and Lebanon – we will do it in Hodeidah and Sana’a”.
In saying this, Mr Katz became the first senior Israeli official to take public responsibility for the killing of Ishmail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader, in Tehran in July.
“We defeated Hamas, we triumphed over Hezbollah, we blinded Iran’s defence systems and hit their production capabilities, we toppled Assad’s regime in Syria, we struck hard at the axis of evil – and we will also strike hard at the Houthi terror organisation in Yemen, which remains the last standing,” Mr Katz added.
Gideon Sa’ar, foreign minister, meanwhile instructed Israel’s diplomatic missions in Europe to work on getting the Houthis designated as a terrorist organisation in their respective countries.
The Houthis are already on the terror lists of the US, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Israel.
Mr Sa’ar said: “The Houthis pose a threat not only to Israel but also to the region and the entire world. The direct threat to the freedom of navigation in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes is a challenge to the international community and world order. The first and most basic thing to do is to designate them as a terrorist organisation.”
The Houthis started launching cruise missiles at Israel on Oct 19 last year in “solidarity” with Palestinians. Since then, the terror group has launched over 200 missiles and 170 drones, killing one Israeli civilian in Tel Aviv on July 19 this year.
In response, Israel has launched wide-scale air strikes against the Houthis’s infrastructure and ports.
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