Yemen’s rebel Houthis movement has confirmed that its Prime Minister Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser al-Rahawi was killed in an airstrike carried out by Israel, according to international media reports.
Broadcasters CNN and BBC reported quoting officials at the Iran-backed group that several other senior officials were killed when the Israel Defence Forces targeted the Yemen’s capital Sana on Thursday.
The IDF claimed that the attacks were carried out on the Houthis military target in Sana without elaborating.
Several Houthis ministers along with Rahawi were killed in the strikes, said the Houthis. The group, however, did not mention the names and portfolios of the ministers those who were killed.
But, according to a BBC report that referred to the Saudi Arabia’s al-Hadath news site, the ministers of justice, youth and sports, foreign affairs, social affairs and labour were killed in the attack.
The Houthis president Mahdi al-Mashat’s office said several other ministers sustained “moderate or serious” injuries as a result of the attacks.
Muhammad Ahmed Miftah, the deputy prime minister of the Houthis, is likely to assume the role of Rahawi, who had been in the position of prime minister since August 2024, according to the president’s office.
Rahawi was largely seen as a figurehead of the movement instead of being part of the top decision-making circle that plans military operations, according to the BBC.
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the movement’s supreme leader and the group’s defence minister and the chief of staff, were not said to be among the casualties in Thursday’s attack, it added.
The Houthis have regularly launched missiles at Israel and targeted commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians since starting of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. And, in turn, Israel carried out airstrikes on Houthis held areas of Yemen.
