Sanaa: Yemen’s Houthi rebel movement has confirmed that its self-proclaimed prime minister, Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser al-Rahawi, was killed in an Israeli air strike on the capital earlier this week.
The Iran-backed group said Rahawi and several other senior figures died when Israeli fighter jets struck a gathering in Sanaa on Thursday. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) later issued a statement saying Rahawi and other Houthi leaders had been eliminated in the precision operation.
While the Houthis did not initially release the names of other officials killed, Saudi media outlet al-Hadath reported that the group’s foreign minister and the ministers of justice, youth and sports, social affairs, and labour were among the dead.
The office of Mahdi al-Mashat, the Houthis’ president, confirmed that several other ministers sustained moderate and serious injuries. Following the strike, Houthi deputy prime minister Muhammad Ahmed Miftah was appointed to assume Rahawi’s role.
🔴 ELIMINATED: Houthi Prime Minister, Ahmed Al-Rahawi, along with additional senior officials of the Houthi terrorist regime were eliminated during an IDF strike in Sanaa, Yemen.
At the facility struck were senior officials responsible for the use of force, the military buildup…
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 30, 2025
Rahawi, who was named Prime Minister in August 2024, was regarded largely as a political figurehead rather than a member of the movement’s top decision-making inner circle. The group’s ultimate leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, along with its defence minister and chief of staff, were not among the casualties in Thursday’s strike.
The IDF said the air strike was carried out within a few hours of receiving intelligence about the Houthi gathering and that it was continuing to assess the full impact of the operation.
Since the eruption of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the Houthis have stepped up attacks against Israel, firing missiles and drones while targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. They say the operations are intended to show solidarity with the Palestinians.
In response, Israel has launched repeated air strikes on targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, vowing to curb the group’s capacity to threaten Israeli territory and disrupt vital international shipping lanes.
