An Israeli air attack killed the government prime minister controlled by Yemen’s rebels, the Hutí militant group backed by Iran said Saturday.
Ahmed al-Rawahi was killed Thursday along with other ministers in a strike against the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, the rebels said in a statement.
“We declare the martyrdom of fighter Ahmed Ghalib al-Rahawi, prime minister of the Government of Change and Construction, along with several of his fellow ministers,” he said.
Al-Rahawi, who had served as Government Prime Minister led by Houthi since 2024, was killed during a government workshop that evaluated “his activities and performance for a year of his work,” the statement added.
After his death, the president of Houthi, Mahdi Al-Mashat, appointed Mohammed Ahmed Ahmed Mumftah, the first vice-first minister, to serve as an interim prime minister.
The Israeli army said Thursday that “precisely he hit a military objective of the Hutí terrorist regime in the area of Sanaa in Yemen.”
The hutis have repeatedly shot the missiles to Israel during their war with Hamas, framing their attacks against Israel and the sending of the Red Sea as part of an allied defense of the Palestinians in Gaza.
In response to Hutis attacks, Israel has bombarded areas controlled by rebels in Yemen.
“Yemen supports a lot for the victory of the Palestinian people,” Al-Rahawi said after an Israeli strike last week that hit an oil installation owned by the country’s main oil company, controlled by the rebels in Sanaa, as well as an energy plant.
The August 24 strike occurred three days after the Hutis launched a ballistic missile towards Israel that their army described as the first cluster bomb that the rebels had launched since 2023.
The prime minister came from the southern province of Abyan, and was an ally of the former president of Yemeni, Ali Abdullah Saleh. He allied with the hutis when the rebels invaded Sanaa, and much of the north and center of the country in 2014, starting the long civil war of the country. He was appointed prime minister in August 2024.
Al-Rahawi is the highest Hutí official to be killed since the United States and Israel began their air and naval campaign in response to missile attacks and unmanned planes of the rebels against Israel and in ships in the Red Sea. American and Israeli strikes killed dozens of people. An American strike in April hit a prison that had African migrants in the province of Northern Sadaa, killing at least 68 people and wounding another 47.
