The Houthis’ top military commander was killed, the Yemeni-based terror group announced Thursday. The elimination of Major General Mohammed Abdul Karim al-Ghamari marks a major Israeli achievement in the war against its Iran-backed enemies.
The Israel Defense Forces targeted General Ghamari and other Houthi leaders back in August, hitting a building in Sanaa where they had gathered to listen to a televised speech by the group’s leader, Abdulmalik al-Houthi. The Houthi prime minister, Ahmed al-Rahawi, was killed in the attack, but the fate of the military chief of staff was initially unknown.
Following the strike, the Houthis claimed that Ghamari survived and, at times, even issued messages in his name. Yet, on Thursday, they officially announced his death “while fulfilling his duties.” The group named another general, Yousuf al-Madani—who is Abdulmalik al-Houthi’s brother-in-law—as Ghamari’s replacement.
Acknowledging on Thursday that Ghamari was killed in an Israeli strike, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated, “We will do the same against any threat in the future as well.”
General Ghamari joins several terror leaders that Israel has eliminated during the two-year war sparked by Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023. Last September, Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah along with the top military leaders of Iranian proxy forces. In Gaza, Israel has targeted Hamas’s top commander Yehyeh Sinwar, his brother Mohammed Sinwar, and chief of staff Mohammed Deif.
While Israel’s operations against these regional terror leaders were the result of years of deep intelligence gathering, it had no such detailed knowledge regarding the Houthis. Yemen is nearly 1,400 miles from Israel, and the Houthis had appeared far from Israel’s target radar.
Shortly after October 7, however, the Yemeni group announced its intention to support the “resistance” in Gaza. Since then, it has launched ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israeli population centers, becoming a major nuisance for Israeli citizens.
The Houthis also claimed to target Israeli shipping, which in reality led to a near-complete halt of commercial maritime traffic in the Red Sea, a crucial route through which nearly 20 percent of the world’s commercial shipping passes.
Despite this week’s announcement of a cease-fire in Gaza, the Houthis vowed to continue fighting Israel. In a statement, they declared, “The rounds of confrontation with the enemy are not over. The Zionist enemy will receive punishment for its crimes until Jerusalem is liberated.”
https://www.nysun.com/article/houthi-chief-of-staff-eliminated-by-israel