Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, publicly acknowledged for the first time on Monday, July 23, that Israel had killed Hamas’s top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran earlier this year.
According to Reuters, Katz made the statement during an event to honor the personnel of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, saying, “Now, when the Houthi terrorist organization launches missiles at Israel, I want to convey a clear message to them at the beginning of this speech: we have defeated Hamas, we have defeated Hezbollah, we have rendered Iran’s defense system ineffective and destroyed its production system, we have overthrown the Assad regime in Syria, we have severely struck the axis of evil, and we will also strike severely at the Houthi terrorist organization in Yemen, the last remaining resistor.”
Katz continued, stating that Israel will destroy the strategic infrastructure of the Houthi armed forces, decapitate the organization’s leaders, just as they removed Haniyeh in Tehran, killed Hamas’s next top leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, and blasted Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in Lebanon. This time, it will be done in Yemen.
For over a year, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have been targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea, attempting to impose a maritime blockade on Israel, claiming to support Palestinians in the Gaza conflict.
In late July, Hamas leader Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, and Iranian authorities accused Israel of the act. At that time, Israel did not directly admit responsibility for Haniyeh’s assassination.
Haniyeh was the mastermind behind the Hamas incursion into Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the Gaza conflict.
In mid-October, the Israeli military also killed Haniyeh’s successor, Sinwar, in Gaza, who was another mastermind behind the October 7 attack.