Netanyahu warns Houthis amid calls for Israel to remove terror leadership like Nasrallah, Sinwar

TEL AVIV – In the midst of negotiations to establish a hostage agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and as the agreement with Hezbollah in Lebanon takes hold, Jerusalem has the opportunity to direct more military resources to reduce the Houthi leadership of Yemen, according to the report. of the officials of Israel.

“Israel must speed up and increase the offensive [in Yemen]not only in the national infrastructure but also in the political leadership,” said Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, former head of Israeli Military Intelligence and president of MIND Israel, told Fox News Digital.

“Target killing is an option if there is good intelligence to allow such an operation. The leaders of the Houthis should meet with Sinwar and Nasrallah and soon it will be better,” he added.

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An Israeli Defense Forces strike killed Hezbollah terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon, on September 28, while Israeli forces killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in the southern Gaza city of -Rafah on October 17, and Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in Iran at the end. summer.

Leaders of the Houthi rebels:

The Houthis are led by Abdul Malik Badruddin Al-Houthi (Abu Jibril), whom the US State Department designated as a Specially Designated World Terrorist Champion in 2021.

According to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), other senior officials include Abdul Khaliq Badruddin Al-Houthi (Abu Yunis), the commander of the Republican Guard (Presidential Reserve), whom the US has also blocked in 2021; Muhammad Ali Al-Houthi (Abu Ahmad), member of the Supreme Political Council; and Abdul Karim Amiruddin Husayn Al-Houthi, minister of interior and director of Ansar Allah’s executive office.

An undated photo of Houthi terrorist leader Abdul Malik Badruddin Al-Houthi. FDD’s Long War Journal notes that he was designated by the State Department as a Special Designated Global Terrorist in 2021. (FDD’s Long War Journal)

Joe Truzman, a research analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal, told Fox News Digital that psychological killings take time and that, so far, the Israelis are busy with Gaza and Lebanon.

“But it can be done. We have seen Israel targeting nuclear scientists and military personnel in Iran. This may be repeated in Yemen. If the Houthis continue this attack, more of Israel’s focus will turn to them,” said Truzman.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, Israel’s former national security adviser and senior fellow at Washington-based JINSA, explained to Fox News Digital the complexity of such efforts.

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A photo taken by Yemen’s Huthi Ansarullah Media Center shows a large column of fire erupting following IDF strikes in Yemen’s rebel-held city of Hodeida on July 20, 2024. (Ansarullah Media Center/AFP via Getty Images)

“You have to be sure that the target is in the place where you detonate the bomb. If it has three houses, how do you know which one it is? You need real-time intel,” said Amidror, who noted that it was easy. for Israel to attack Nasrallah from the moment his exact location is known.

“It took 15-20 minutes to strike [the Hezbollah headquarters] in Beirut because it is so close to Israel,” he said. “Yemen is a big undertaking, it needs refueling planes, not to mention the problems on the ground. A completely different kind of intelligence is required.

“Both Nasrallah and Sinwar were known enemies and we gathered information about them over the years, but the Houthis were not important,” Amidror continued. “The way forward is to start strengthening intelligence gathering by building bridges with those who can provide it.”

On Wednesday night, the IAF struck an area 1,200 kilometers away in Yemen, after a Houthi missile hit a primary school in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv.

An IDF profile picture showing Hezbollah terrorist chief Hassan Nasrallah, who the IDF confirmed was killed in a strike in September. (IDF Spokesperson Unit)

The pre-dawn strikes were carried out in two waves, targeting the Ras Isa oil field in the Red Sea, the ports of Hodeidah and Salif, and the D’Habban and Haziz power stations in Sana’a, according to reports.

In July, a Houthi drone killed a civilian in Tel Aviv, prompting the IAF to strike Yemen’s Hodeidah Port. Israeli aircraft also carried out a series of airstrikes in the Hodeidah area in September.

In total, the Houthis launched more than 200 missiles and 170 drones at Israel since October 7, 2023 of Hamas, killing 1,200 people. Since then, the Houthis have also attacked more than a dozen commercial vessels – mostly at Bab-el-Mandeb, the southern sea gate to Egypt’s Suez Canal.

“The range to Yemen is about the longest the IAF has ever flown, but they can increase that by refueling,” Brig. Gen. (res.) Relik Shafir, a former IAF pilot who participated in Operation Opera, the attack on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor on June 7, 1981, told Fox News Digital.

“It’s not comfortable for a pilot to be in an F-15, F-16 or F-35 for seven hours. You need to be fully alert and at a high level of concentration,” he continued. “Israel can strike sufficiently against any existing enemy and the air force uses guided missiles that shoot with an accuracy of two or three meters.”

Deceased Hamas terrorist chief Yahya Sinwar on a poster in Tehran, Iran, August 13, 2024. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)

On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a warning to the Houthis, “We will strike their strategic infrastructure and decapitate their leaders. [former Hamas chief Ismail] Haniyeh, Sinwar and Nasrallah, in Tehran, Gaza and Lebanon – we will do it in Hodeidah and Sanaa.”

Previously, Jerusalem had taken responsibility for the killing of Haniyeh on July 31, who went to the Iranian capital for the inauguration of the country’s president.

On Friday, the spokesman for the US Department of Defense, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said the Israelis “definitely have a right to defend themselves.”

Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and his bodyguards were killed in an alleged assassination in Israel on Aug. 1, 2024 in Tehran. (Cem Tekkesinoglu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The Houthis are “a danger to everyone in the Middle East,” former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy told Fox News Digital.. “Finally, many countries in the region will be interested and willing to cooperate in efforts to end this attack, which is completely unjustified.”

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Israeli Air Force planes are going to strike in Yemen. (IDF)

Halevy stressed that “terrorist activity of all kinds is a challenge that must be met with an appropriate response. The Houthis have suffered losses and if they continue to provoke us, we will have to do more.”

In March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition launched a military intervention against the Houthis at the request of then Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was ousted from Sana’a last September. Yemen’s civil war is still on hold, with an internationally recognized government, led by the Presidential Leadership Council since 2022, based in Aden, in the south of the country, since February 2015.

A source close to that government told Israeli public broadcaster Kan on Saturday that Jerusalem should begin the killing of Houthi leaders, while Saudi Al-Arabiya reported that senior Houthi officials had fled Sana’a out of concern that they would be targeted.

“We need to deeply understand what would harm the Houthis’ ability to operate,” former Israeli national security adviser Eyal Hulata told Fox News Digital. “For this, we need more intelligence, more testing and coordination between different organizations.”

Houthi fighters mounted heavy artillery on vehicles in a rally in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. (Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)

The big question, Hulata said, is whether the Houthis will continue to pose a threat if Israel and Hamas agree to a ceasefire.

“If they become a major enemy, Israel will need to deal with this by directing resources that it hoped to avoid – and perhaps still hopes to,” he said.

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On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israelis to “be patient” as he told Jerusalem that it was preparing to intensify its campaign against the Houthis.

“We will take serious, determined and high-level measures. Even if it takes time, the result will be the same,” he vowed. “Just as we have acted forcefully against the threatening weapons of evil Iran, so we will act against the Houthis.”