JERUSALEM—Israel Katz, the defense minister, admitted Monday that Israel had killed Ismail Haniyeh, the former head of Hamas, in Tehran earlier this year, but he also threatened to “decapitate” the Houthi leadership in Yemen.
“We’re going to hit the Houthis hard. “We will decapitate their leadership in Hodeida and Sanaa, just as we did with Haniyeh, [Yahya] Sinwar, and [Hassan] Nasrallah in Tehran, Gaza, and Lebanon,” Katz stated.
Speaking at a defense ministry event, he made the first public admission that Israel was responsible for the killing of Haniyeh in the Iranian capital in late July, one day after he was present at Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s inauguration.
Katz stated in a ministry statement that “anyone who raises a hand against Israel will have his hand cut off, and the long arm of the IDF (Israeli military) will strike him and hold him accountable.”
This is the first time an Israeli official has acknowledged that Tel Aviv was involved in the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian land, even though Tel Aviv acknowledged the strikes that targeted Sinwar and Nasrallah.
Iran launched what it called a “barrage of missiles” at targets inside Israel in October, escalating tensions between the two regional arch-rivals. Despite Israel’s claims that it destroyed the majority of the projectiles before they struck, several missiles did strike different parts of the nation, though no significant casualties were reported.
The assassinations of Hassan Nasrallah, IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan, and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July were cited by Tehran at the time as the reasons for the strike.
