Israel pubilcly admits for first time to killing Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran

Five months after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has publicly admitted responsibility for the Palestinian leader’s killing. 

Katz also issued a stark warning to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, vowing they would face the same fate, as he claimed Hamas had been “defeated” in Gaza.

Speaking at an event on Monday to honor defense officials, Katz asserted that Israel had significantly weakened the so-called “axis of evil” and pledged to decisively target the Houthis in Yemen, describing them as “the last to stand.”

“When the Houthi terrorist organisation is firing missiles at Israel, I want to convey a clear message to them at the beginning of my remarks: We have defeated Hamas, we have defeated Hezbollah, we have blinded Iran’s defence systems and damaged the production systems, we have toppled the [Bashar al-]Assad regime in Syria,” he said.

Israel will “damage [Houthi] 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 [Yemen’s] Hodeidah and Sanaa”, 

Since October 7, Houthi rebels have been launching missile and drone attacks on Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, amid genocide by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Senior Hamas official, Khalil Al-Hayya stated that Hamas’ political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed by a missile on Wednesday, July 31. The witnesses reported the missile broke the window of the room before directly striking Haniyeh.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of newly-elected Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on July 30.