Yemen’s Houthi movement says its military chief of staff, Mohammed al-Ghamari, has been killed.
A statement gave no details, but it did say that Ghamari and his teenage son died during what it described as the “honourable battle against the Israeli enemy”.
The Israeli military has carried out many rounds of strikes in Houthi-controlled Yemen in response to repeated Houthi drone and missile attacks on Israel and Red Sea shipping linked to the Gaza war.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Ghamari “died of wounds” he sustained in an Israeli air strike in Yemen’s capital Sanaa in late August, which also killed the Houthi government’s prime minister and other ministers.
“Another chief of staff in the line of terror chiefs who aimed to harm us was eliminated,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “We will reach all of them.”
The Iran-backed Houthis have controlled much of north-western Yemen since they ousted the country’s internationally recognised government from there 10 years ago, sparking a devastating civil war.
They began attacking Israel and international shipping in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden shortly after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip in October 2023, saying they were acting in support of the Palestinians.
The US and UK have also conducted strikes on what they said were Houthi military targets in Yemen in response to the attacks.
The Houthi statement published on Thursday acknowledged that “a large number of great martyrs, both civilians and military personnel” were killed during what it called the “criminal American-Zionist aggression against the country” over the past two years.
“The martyred leader, Major General Mohammed Abdul Karim al-Ghamari, along with some of his companions and his martyred son, Hussein, aged 13, ascended as a blessed martyr in the course of his jihadist work and the fulfilment of his religious duty,” it added.
The group declared that such deaths were “a source of pride” and that they would be avenged.
“The rounds of conflict with the enemy have not ended, and the Zionist enemy will receive its deterrent punishment for the crimes it has committed,” it warned.
Israel’s defence minister wrote on X that Ghamari had joined “his thwarted comrades of the Axis of Evil in the depths of hell”.
“We have worked hard against the Houthis to remove significant threats – and we will do so against any threat in the future as well,” he added.
The Israeli military has not reported any Houthi missile or drone attacks since Israel agreed a Gaza ceasefire deal with Hamas last week.
The Houthis’ leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, has said the group will remain ready to act against Israel if it fails to comply with the agreement.
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