“Just as we took care of Sinwar in Gaza, Haniyeh in Tehran and Nasrallah in Beirut, we will deal with the heads of the Houthis in Sana’a or anywhere in Yemen,” said Katz, who was visiting an air defense operations center.

The reference to Haniyeh was a reiteration of remarks Katz made the previous day, the first time Israel claimed responsibility for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s politburo and top leader in July. Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an airstrike in Beirut in September. Hamas’s Gaza strongman and mastermind of the October 7 attacks Yahya Sinwar was killed in a chance encounter with soldiers in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

On Tuesday morning, Israeli air defenses intercepted a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis before it reached Israeli airspace. The launch triggered sirens in central and southern Israel. It was the third Houthi missile attack in a week. The attack also came as Iran-backed Shi’ite militias in Iraq told Iraqi Prime Minister they would cease attacks on Israel, abstain from interfering in Syria, and withdraw from positions along the Iraqi-Syrian border.

Till now, Israeli strikes in Yemen in July, September and December have targeted ports and other infrastructure belonging to the Iran-backed group.

“We will act both against their infrastructure and against them to remove the threat,” Katz said, adding, “whoever sponsors the Houthi terror in Hodeida or Sana’a will pay the full price.”.

Since Hamas’s October 7 attack, the Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles and 170 drones at Israel. The majority have been intercepted before reaching Israeli airspace.

The Houthis vowed in early December to target any Israel-bound ship in the Red Sea, regardless of its ownership. They have attacked or harassed around 100 ships, hijacked the MV Galaxy Leader in November 2023 and are holding its crew of 25 hostage.

From bases along the Yemeni coast, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have threatened ships in the Red Sea as they traverse the Bab el-Mandeb Straits, a narrow maritime choke point between the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. The majority of the world’s oil passes through the strait from the Indian Ocean towards the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea.

Image - IDF