Israeli defense minister claims responsibility for first time for Hamas leader Haniyeh’s assassination By Reuters | masr356.com

CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz admitted on Monday for the first time publicly to Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran in July, additional risking tensions between Tehran and its arch-enemy Israel in a area shaken by Israel’s struggle in Gaza and the battle in Lebanon.

“Nowadays, when the Houthi terrorist group is firing missiles at Israel, I wish to convey a transparent message to them at the start of my remarks: We’ve defeated Hamas, we’ve defeated Hezbollah, we’ve blinded Iran’s defense techniques and broken the manufacturing techniques, we’ve toppled the Assad regime in Syria, we’ve dealt a extreme blow to the axis of evil, and we will even deal a extreme blow to the Houthi terrorist group in Yemen, which stays the final to face,” Katz stated.

Israel will “injury their strategic infrastructure, and we are going to behead their leaders – simply as we did to Haniyeh, Sinwar and Nasrallah in Tehran, Gaza and Lebanon – we are going to do it in Hodeidah and Sana’a,” Katz stated throughout a night honoring defense ministry personnel.

The Iran-backed group in Yemen has been attacking industrial transport within the Crimson Sea for greater than a yr to attempt to implement a naval blockade on Israel, saying they’re appearing in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s year-long struggle 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 declare of responsibility by Israel for the killing of Haniyeh on the time.

Haniyeh, usually based mostly in Qatar, had been the face of Hamas’ worldwide diplomacy because the struggle set off by the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7 has raged in Gaza. He had been participating in internationally brokered oblique talks on reaching a ceasefire within the Palestinian enclave.

Months after, Israeli forces in Gaza killed Yahya Sinwar, Haniyeh’s successor and the mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, assault that triggered the newest bloodshed within the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian battle.