Yemen’s rebel leader, Abdel Malik al-Houthi, today vowed a “military response” to what he called Israel’s “dangerous escalation” following the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya on Wednesday. , in Tehran in a blow attributed to Israel.

“Our position on these crimes is clear,” the leader of the pro-Iranian Houthi rebel movement said in a televised speech. “There must be a military response to these crimes, which are dangerous, brazen and constitute a major escalation by the Israeli enemy,” he continued.

Since November, the Houthis have been increasing attacks off the coast of Yemen against ships portrayed as somehow connected to Israel, in a show of “support” for the Palestinians in the Gaza war.

Yemeni rebels have also fired rockets at Israeli cities, most of which were intercepted.

In his speech today, Abdel Malik al-Houthi called the killing of the Hamas leader “a blatant and clear violation of all rules and all principles.”

Also commenting on the death of Lebanese Hezbollah military leader Fouad Shukr, who was killed on Tuesday near Beirut in a strike claimed by Israel, the rebel leader denounced “blatant aggression and a dangerous escalation”.

The Houthis control entire parts of Yemen, including much of the Red Sea coast.

Israel says the raid on Lebanon was the only one in the Middle East

The Israeli military said today that the airstrike that killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon was the only one carried out by Israel in the Middle East overnight in which the Hamas leader was killed in Tehran.

The military leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed movement, Fouad Shukr, was killed Tuesday night by an Israeli strike on a building in a densely populated Beirut neighborhood.

“We attacked Tuesday night in Lebanon and killed Fouad Shoukr in a targeted airstrike. I want to be clear, there was no other Israeli airstrike either by missile or drone that night in the entire Middle East,” said military spokesman Vice Admiral Daniel Hagari at a press conference this evening.

The spokesman responded to a reporter asking if he could confirm reports that Hamas leader Ismail Haniya was killed by a bomb and not a missile.

Hamas and the Revolutionary Guards, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ideological army, announced on Wednesday that Haniya had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. Israel had no comment.

After Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, which the United States and the European Union designate as a terrorist organization.

Since the start of the war, cross-border exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel have been almost daily, with the Lebanese movement saying it is attacking Israel in a show of support for its ally Hamas and the Palestinian people.

The Israeli military accuses Hezbollah of being responsible for the July 27 death of 12 children in a rocket attack on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Hezbollah denies any involvement.