Israel has confirmed that its military killed Ismail Haniyeh, the former Hamas political chief, in Tehran earlier this year. The assassination was revealed by Defence Minister Israel Katz, who also issued a warning to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, stating that their leadership could face a similar fate.
Hamas leader Hanieyh’s killing came hours after top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli air attack on the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital,
Beirut, on July 31.
Yahya Sinwar replaced Haniyeh as the group’s military chief. Sinwar was also killed in an Israeli military operation in southern Gaza on October 16. In another major killing, Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah chief was also killed by Israel.
At a commemoration event for local security officers, Katz said, “We will strike [the Houths’] strategic infrastructure and decapitate its leaders. Just as we did to Haniyeh, Sinwar, and Nasrallah, in Tehran, Gaza and Lebanon — we will do in Hodeidah and
Sanaa.”
Israeli Defence Minister also admitted to overthrowing the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Opposition forces, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), launched a strong offensive from the northwestern province of Idlib in November.
They reached Damascus in the early hours of December 8 and announced the end of more than 50 years of the al-Assad family’s iron-fist rule over Syria.
Katz added, “We have overthrown the Assad regime in Syria, we have dealt heavy blows to the ‘axis of evil,’ and we will also severely strike the Houthi terror organization in Yemen, which remains the last one standing.”
