Israel issues strongest threat yet against Iran after Houthi missile attack
Israel issued its strongest threat yet against Iran on Thursday, warning it would do to it what it has done to Hamas in Gaza after an attack on Ben Gurion airport by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Along with Hezbollah and Hamas, Yemen's Houthi rebels are part of Iran's "axis of resistance" against Israel and its ally the United States.
They say their repeated attacks on Israel and on shipping in the Red Sea are in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas sparked a war in October 2023 by launching an unprecedented attack on Israel.
Israel hit back against the Houthis' attack on its main airport on Sunday by striking the airport in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, as well as three power stations in the impoverished country.
"I warn... Iranian leaders who finance, arm and exploit the Houthi terrorist organization: the proxy system is terminated and the axis of evil has collapsed," Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
"You are directly responsible. What we have done to Hezbollah in Beirut, to Hamas in Gaza, to (now ousted Syrian president Bashar) Assad in Damascus, we will do to you in Tehran too."
Warning that Israel would not allow "any entity to harm Israel", Katz added: "Israel should be able to defend itself... against any threat and against any enemy. This has been the case with several challenges in the past, and it will continue to be the case in future.
"Anyone who attacks us will be severely struck."
- Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen -
In Syria, an Islamist-led rebel alliance toppled Assad in December, effectively cutting off the supply route from Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Lebanon's Hezbollah, like the Houthis, also began cross-border attacks on Israel following the 2023 attack by Hamas.
In a year of hostilities across the Lebanese-Israeli border that ended with a November truce, the Israeli army all but crushed Hezbollah.
Hamas' leadership has been decimated in the Gaza war and much of the territory that the movement rules has been destroyed.
Iran has denied supporting the Houthis in their attack on Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv.
Israel hit back against the Houthis with strikes on the airport in the rebel-held capital Sanaa as well as on power stations in and around the capital.
The United States and the Houthis reached a ceasefire agreement, mediator Oman announced on Tuesday, saying the deal would ensure "freedom of navigation" in the Red Sea where the rebels have attacked shipping.
The Houthis have vowed to continue targeting Israel and Israeli ships in the Red Sea despite the deal that ended weeks of intense US strikes on Yemen.
Longtime foes Iran and Israel have attacked each other directly for the first time since the October 2023 attack.
Hamas's attack left Israel feeling vulnerable, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed two days later to "change the Middle East" to protect the country from any repetition.
Hamas's attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Of the 251 people abducted from Israel that day, 58 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli army says are dead. Hamas is also holding the body of an Israeli soldier killed during a previous war in Gaza, in 2014.
The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation for the Hamas attack has killed at least 52,653 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry, which are considered reliable by the United Nations.
Source: Agence France Presse
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