Israel Assassinates Yemen’s PM Ahmed Al-Rahawi in Sanaa

Beirut- Israel has assassinated prime minister of the Houthi controlled government in Yemen's capital Sanaa, authorities confirmed here on Saturday. He was the most senior official killed in the Israeli-US campaign against the Iranian-backed Ansarullah movement that controls most of the North Yemen.

Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahawi has been martyred, along with several ministers, in the latest Israeli aggression on Sanaa, the Yemeni presidency announced on Saturday.

"Amid the ongoing and open battle against Israel, Yemen lost a new cohort of great martyrs from its national leadership, which represents the entire spectrum of the Yemeni people, confirming the martyrdom of freedom fighter Ahmad Ghaleb al-Raahwi, the prime minister of the Government of Change and Construction, along with a number of his fellow ministers," the Yemeni presidency said in a statement.

"In vindication of the Palestinian people's plight, Yemen waged the battle of the promised conquest and the sacred jihad, earning immense honor and, in its cause, presented convoys of martyrs from the heroes of the armed forces and other sons of the great Yemeni people who carried the banner and pledged to God to remain steadfast in the truth, no matter the cost," the statement read.

The premier was targeted along with other members of his government during a "routine workshop held by the government to evaluate its activities and performance over the past year," the statement said.

Thursday's Israeli strike took place as the state television station 'Al-Maseerah' was broadcasting a speech by Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the secretive leader of Ansarallah in which he was sharing updates on the latest Gaza developments and vowing retaliation against Israel.

The strike that killed the prime minister targeted a meeting for leaders in a villa in Beit Baws, an ancient village in southern Sanaa, three tribal leaders told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared repercussions.

In his response Mohammad al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Political Bureau of the Ansarallah movement, stated that targeting the Yemeni government's meeting has "crossed red lines," emphasizing that the war has entered a new stage and that retaliation is inevitable.

"Our actions will precede our words," he promised.

On Thursday, the Israeli military said that it "precisely struck a Houthi terrorist regime military target in the area of Sanaa in Yemen." The military had no immediate comment on Saturday's announcement of the prime minister's killing.

"Yemen endures a lot for the victory of the Palestinian people," al-Rahawi said following an Israeli strike last week that struck an oil facility owned by the country's main oil company, which is controlled by Sanaa as well as a power plant.

The August 24 strike came three days after the Yemeni's launched a ballistic missile toward Israel that its military described as the first cluster bomb they had launched at Jewish state since 2023.

The prime minister hailed from the southern province of Abyan, and was an ally to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. He allied himself with the Houthis when the rebels overran Sanaa, and much of the north and centre of the country in 2014. He was appointed as prime minister in August 2024.

Al-Rahawi is the most senior Houthi official to be killed since the United States and Israel began their air and naval campaign in response to the Houthi missile and drone attacks on Israel and on ships aligned to Tel Aviv in the Red Sea. The US and Israeli strikes killed hundreds of people. One US strike in April hit a prison holding African migrants in the northern Sadaa province, killing at least 68 people and wounding 47 others.

Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst with the Crisis Group International, a Brussels-based think-tank, called the killing of the Yemeni prime minister a "serious setback" for the Ansarallah.

He said the escalation marks an Israeli shift from striking the rebels' infrastructure to targeting their leaders, including senior military figures, which "poses a greater threat to their command structure."

Shortly after the assassination of Al-Rahawi, the head of the Yemeni Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat, announced the appointment of Mohammad al-Moftah as a caretaker prime minister.

The Houthis launched a campaign targeting ships in response to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, saying they were doing so in solidarity with the Palestinians. Their attacks over the past two years have upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which about USD 1 trillion of goods pass each year.

In May, the Trump administration announced a deal with the Houthis to end the airstrikes in return for an end to attacks on shipping. The rebels, however, said the agreement did not include halting attacks on targets it believed were aligned with Israel.