CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli Protection Minister Israel Katz admitted on Monday for the primary time publicly to Israel’s killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran in July, additional risking tensions between Tehran and its arch-enemy Israel in a area shaken by Israel’s battle in Gaza and the battle in Lebanon.
“These days, when the Houthi terrorist organization is firing missiles at Israel, I want to convey a clear message to them at the beginning of my remarks: We have defeated Hamas, we have defeated Hezbollah, we have blinded Iran’s defense systems and damaged the production systems, we have toppled the Assad regime in Syria, we have dealt a severe blow to the axis of evil, and we will also deal a severe blow to the Houthi terrorist organization in Yemen, which remains the last to stand,” Katz stated.
Israel will “damage their strategic infrastructure, and we will behead their leaders – just as we did to Haniyeh, Sinwar and Nasrallah in Tehran, Gaza and Lebanon – we will do it in Hodeidah and Sana’a,” Katz stated throughout a night honoring protection ministry personnel.
The Iran-backed group in Yemen has been attacking business delivery within the Purple Sea for greater than a yr to attempt to implement a naval blockade on Israel, saying they’re performing in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s year-long battle in Gaza.
In late July, the political chief of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas was killed in Tehran in an assassination blamed on Israel by Iranian authorities. There was no direct declare of duty by Israel for the killing of Haniyeh on the time.
Haniyeh, usually primarily based in Qatar, had been the face of Hamas’ worldwide diplomacy because the battle set off by the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7 has raged in Gaza. He had been collaborating in internationally brokered oblique talks on reaching a ceasefire within the Palestinian enclave.
Months after, Israeli forces in Gaza killed Yahya Sinwar, Haniyeh’s successor and the mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, assault that triggered the most recent bloodshed within the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian battle.
