Houthis warn foreign firms in Israel to leave before it’s too late

The Houthi rebel-controlled Yemeni government confirmed the death of its Prime Minister, Ahmed al-Rahawi, in an Israeli strike in Sana’a on Thursday, August 28, and several ministers, as they stormed the UN office in the Yemeni capital on Sunday, August 31.

“We promise to God, to the dear Yemeni people and the families of the martyrs and wounded that we will take revenge,” Mahdi al-Mashat, the head of the group’s supreme political council, said, while also warning foreign companies to leave Israel “before it’s too late”. But before the Houthis launched any attack, the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, had his own warning, after saying the strike was “a crushing blow” against the Houthis and adding that “this is only the beginning”.

The Houthi premier was targeted along with other members of his Houthi-controlled government during a “routine workshop held by the government to evaluate its activities and performance over the past year”, the Houthi statement said.   “Yemen endures a lot for the victory of the Palestinian people,” al-Rahawi said after an Israeli strike last week on an oil facility owned by the country’s main oil company, which is controlled by the rebels in Sana’a, as well as a power plant.

The antagonism is not recent

On August 22, the Houthis had launched a ballistic missile toward Israel that its military described as the first cluster bomb the rebels had launched at it since 2023.

In the meantime, the Houthi rebels decided to raid the offices of the World Food Programme (WFP) in the Yemeni capital on Sunday, August 31, in the morning, a spokesperson for the local security forces agency told CNN. A WFP staff member was detained, they continued, adding that there were reports of detentions elsewhere as well. CNN said it is unclear whether the raid was related to Israel’s attacks. The Houthis have previously targeted the UN and other international organisations.

“We are doing what no one has done before us, and this is only the beginning of the strikes on senior officials in Sanaa – we will get to all of them,” the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu told a government meeting on Sunday.

Since October 2023, Houthi forces have launched near-daily attacks against Israeli-linked shipping in the Red Sea, as well as targets in Israel, such as air and sea ports, launching more than 70 missiles and 22 drones at Israel since March 2025 alone.

These attacks, which the Houthis consistently frame as protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, have been painful: since November 2023, the Houthis have targeted more than 100 merchant ships in the Red Sea, pushing insurance rates to skyrocket and forcing costly detours for commercial shipping. The strikes forced the key Israeli Red Sea port of Eilat to reduce operations by 90 per cent, pushing it to the brink of bankruptcy. These actions prompted relentless Israeli retaliation against Yemeni targets, according to Responsible Statecraft.