Yemen's Houthi military chief killed in Israeli attack, Iran-backed group says

Sana'a: The military chief of Yemen's Houthi militants has been killed in an Israeli attack, the Iran-backed group said on Thursday, threatening revenge.

Major General Mohammed Al Ghamari died in "honourable battle against the Israeli enemy", a military statement said, without giving further details.

His death was announced days into a ceasefire in the two-year Gaza war, during which the Houthis repeatedly attacked Israeli targets and cargo ships in the Red Sea.

Al Ghamari died alongside "companions" and his 13-year-old son, the Houthi statement said, without giving the date of the attack.

The Houthis' general staff headquarters was among the targets of the last major Israeli air strike on Yemen in late September, Israel's military said at the time.

But Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz posted on X on Thursday that Ghamari "died of his wounds" after a strike in August that killed the Huthi prime minister and half his cabinet.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Ghamari was "eliminated among a series of terrorist commanders who sought to harm us -- we will get to them all", according to a post by his office.

The Houthis, part of Iran's "axis of resistance" against Israel and the United States, have traded attacks with Israeli and American forces during the Gaza war.

Their statement said they had carried out 758 military operations, deploying 1,835 munitions, including drones and missiles, during their campaign.

"The rounds of conflict with the enemy have not ended, and the Zionist enemy [Israel] will receive its deterrent punishment for the crimes it has committed," it said.

The Houthis began firing on Israel-linked shipping in the busy Red Sea and Gulf of Aden trade route early in the Gaza war, claiming to act in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Their frequent drone and missile attacks on Israel have drawn a heavy Israeli response, including the August airstrike that killed the prime minister and 11 other senior officials.

After US President Donald Trump returned to power in January, a seven-week American campaign of near-daily bombing left 300 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Huthi figures.

The Houthis, who hail from Yemen's rugged north, have controlled large swathes of the country, including the capital Sana'a, for more than a decade.

Attacks by a Saudi-led international coalition from early 2015 failed to dislodge them, while the conflict plunged Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country, into a major humanitarian catastrophe.