Reuters. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz admitted on Monday (December 23) for the first time publicly to Israel's killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran in July, further risking tensions between Tehran and its arch-enemy Israel in a region shaken by Israel's war in Gaza and the conflict in Lebanon.
Katz said that Israel has defeated Hamas and Hezbollah and toppled Assad's regime in Syria, during his opening remarks at an evening honoring defence ministry personnel.
Israel will "damage their strategic infrastructure, and we will behead their leaders – just as we did to Haniyeh, Sinwar and Nasrallah in Tehran, Gaza and Lebanon – we will do it in Hodeidah and Sana'a," Katz said during an evening honoring defense ministry personnel.
The Iran-backed group in Yemen has been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea and sending missiles and drones into Israel, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's year-long war in Gaza.
In late July, the political leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas was killed in Tehran in an assassination blamed on Israel by Iranian authorities. There was no direct claim of responsibility by Israel for the killing of Haniyeh at the time.
Months after, Israeli forces in Gaza killed Yahya Sinwar, Haniyeh's successor and the mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
