August 2025 Israeli Attack on Sanaa

The Houthis conducted 220 missile and drone attacks on Israel between August 2024 and August 2025, ostensibly seeking to compel Israel to end its war with Hamas.[3] Houthi missile and drone attacks on Israel began on October 19, 2023, while attacks on commercial shipping followed the outbreak of the war.[1][2] They suspended fire during the January 2025 Israel–Hamas ceasefire and resumed attacks after Israel restarted its Gaza offensive on March 18.[4] By August 30, contemporary reporting counted 72 ballistic missiles and at least 23 drones launched toward Israel since March 18, with several missiles falling short of their destination.[4] Israel’s August operations therefore occurred during an ongoing campaign of Houthi launches rather than as an isolated exchange.[4][1]

Al-Rahawi had headed the Houthi-controlled government since August 2024 and had joined the Supreme Political Council, the Houthis’ executive body, in 2019.[1] His administration operated in territory under Houthi control, with Sanaa as its governmental center.[4][3] His deputy, Mohamed Moftah, was already regarded as the government’s de facto leader and subsequently took over the prime minister’s duties.[2] The August 28 attack targeted a gathering of officials from this administration, following earlier Israeli operations directed at infrastructure used by the Houthi regime.[1][2]

On August 17, the Israeli Navy struck a power plant south of Sanaa in response to repeated Houthi missile and drone attacks.[5] An Israeli defense official identified missile boats as the attacking platforms, while local reporting described explosions that disabled generators.[5] The naval force operated from the Red Sea and was led by a Sa’ar 6 missile ship; its stated purpose was to pressure the Houthis to stop launching ballistic missiles and unmanned aircraft at Israel.[6] The military characterized the target as energy infrastructure used by the Houthi regime, while Houthi-run media denounced the operation as aggression.[5]

A further escalation followed the Houthi ballistic missile launch on August 22.[1] An Israeli military investigation found that the missile carried a cluster warhead, the first such use identified in that account.[7] A submunition struck the yard of a home in central Israel, causing slight damage; the resident had taken shelter and was unharmed.[7] Reporting identified the locality as Ginatton and recorded no injuries from the incident.[8] The missile’s failure to be intercepted was investigated separately, and the military said that failure was unrelated to the type of warhead.[7]

On August 24, four days before the leadership strike, Israeli aircraft attacked a military compound containing the presidential palace, a fuel depot, and two power stations in Sanaa.[7] The operation was called “Neve Tzedek.”[9] The military described the palace compound as a site used to manage Houthi operations and said the power plants supplied electricity supporting military activity.[7] Contemporary reporting identified the power stations as Asar and Hazeiz and described the operation’s stated objective as weakening Houthi infrastructure and disrupting its supply chain.[8] These infrastructure attacks were separate from the August 28 strike on the gathering of government officials.[1]

One report said more than ten aircraft dropped 35 munitions during the August 24 operation.[9] It described a flight lasting about five and a half hours, several aerial refuelings, and a farthest target more than 2,000 kilometers from Israel.[9] Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir watched the operation from the Kirya command center.[8] Houthi official Hazam al-Asad rejected the attack and said the movement’s priority remained ending the attacks on Gaza and lifting its blockade.[8]

Local and regional accounts described impacts at an oil-company station on Sittin Street and at the Hazeiz power station; other reports identified the capital secretariat building and the aviation college.[10] Witnesses also reported strikes near missile bases and the presidential palace.[10] A Houthi health-ministry spokesperson subsequently gave a toll of four people killed and 67 injured in the August 24 attacks.[7] That later figure followed an initial account of two deaths and five injuries at the oil-company station.[11] The leadership strike on August 28 was Israel’s second attack on Houthi targets that week and was described in contemporary reporting as its 16th attack on the group in Yemen.[12]

On August 28, Israeli fighter aircraft struck in Sanaa, killing al-Rahawi and other officials who had gathered there.[1][2] The military described a complex operation enabled by intelligence collection and air superiority.[4] Sanaa was placed approximately 1,800 kilometers, or 1,100 miles, from Israel in contemporary reporting, underscoring the distance involved in the operation.[12] The strike took place amid continuing Houthi missile and drone attacks against Israel.[12]

The military described the immediate attack sequence as an intelligence opportunity followed by a rapid operational cycle completed within a few hours.[13] Operational reporting described weeks of preparation involving approximately 200 intelligence personnel working in a classified bunker, including personnel from units 8200, 9900, and 504.[13] The same reporting said representatives of United States Central Command were involved.[13] These accounts described an extended effort to develop intelligence on the leadership alongside a much shorter window for identifying and attacking the particular gathering.[13]

The meeting’s location and timing were reportedly identified only hours before the strike.[13] Several possible sites were considered before intelligence personnel identified a villa in a residential neighborhood of Sanaa.[13] The operation then received rapid approval from the chief of staff and political clearance.[13] Estimates in the operational reporting placed more than 20 senior officials inside the villa, accompanied by aides, drivers, and security personnel.[13] Other reporting described a conference attended by dozens of officials in the Houthi-controlled government.[14]

Katz said he coordinated the operation with Zamir and senior commanders, as well as Netanyahu, before authorizing it.[12] The military said real-time intelligence made the strike possible despite heavy air defenses around the target area.[12] Israeli intelligence reportedly monitored Houthi leader Abd al-Malik al-Houthi’s televised address during the operation to determine whether he appeared aware that senior officials were being targeted.[12] The reporting said his appearance gave no indication that he knew of the attack.[12]

Contemporary reporting placed the gathering during al-Houthi’s weekly speech, with those present watching its broadcast.[2] Early intelligence reporting had identified approximately ten ministers, including the defense minister, among the officials expected at a gathering to hear the speech.[12] The subsequent airstrike hit the meeting place, killing al-Rahawi and other senior members of the administration.[1][2] The military described those at the facility as “senior officials responsible for the use of force, the military buildup of the Houthi terror regime, and the advancement of terror actions against Israel.”[1]

The first Houthi reaction denied that leaders had been targeted.[14] Nasreddine Amer, deputy head of the movement’s information bureau, said reports of an attack on the leadership were false and characterized the targets as civilian.[14] A Houthi defense-ministry source similarly denied that movement members had been targeted and said Israel was attacking Yemenis because of their support for Gaza.[12] Houthi statements subsequently described the gathering as a routine government workshop intended to evaluate the administration’s work over the previous year.[15]

On August 30, Houthi-run media announced that al-Rahawi and several ministers had been killed, citing a statement by Supreme Political Council head Mahdi al-Mashat.[2] The announcement also said other officials were wounded without identifying every casualty.[2] Israel confirmed al-Rahawi’s death that day, while reporting on the identities and number of other officials killed remained incomplete and inconsistent.[1][2] Further death notices were reported on September 1.[14]

Long War Journal listed al-Rahawi; nine ministers—Hashem Ahmed Sharaf al-Din, Jamal Ahmed Amer, Muin Hashem Ahmed al-Mahaqri, Ali Qasim Hussein al-Yafii, Radwan Ali al-Ruba’i, Mohammed Ali al-Mawla, Samir Muhammad Bajala, Mujahid Ahmed Abdullah Ali, and Ali Saif Muhammad; Prime Minister’s Office director Muhammad Qasim al-Kubaisi; and cabinet secretary Zahed Muhammad al-Amidi.[1] A separate Meir Amit report gave a different breakdown and used different transliterations, contributing to discrepancies in the reported casualty count.[14]

Houthi authorities also said several ministers attending the meeting had sustained serious or moderate injuries.[2] Israeli security reporting identified additional casualties by office, including the political bureau director, the prime minister’s chief of staff, the cabinet secretary, and ministers responsible for justice, economy and trade, foreign affairs, agriculture, and public relations.[2] The loss of the prime minister and multiple ministers was established in announcements and reporting from both sides, while the identities and status of other people targeted remained disputed.[1][2]

First Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed Miftah, also rendered Mohamed Moftah, became acting prime minister on August 30 and was assigned to carry out al-Rahawi’s duties.[1][2] The succession placed the administration under a deputy already described as its de facto leader.[2] Al-Mashat mourned the officials killed and threatened revenge, while the Houthis held a funeral in Sanaa.[1] In his mourning speech, al-Mashat warned: “If the pure and innocent Yemeni blood is shed, the thrones of empires that ruled the world or most of it will fall.”[1]

The Houthis launched missiles and drones toward Israel on September 2 and 3 in response to the Israeli attacks.[1] Continued missile attacks after the leadership strike caused no damage in the account covering that phase of the exchange, which also identified a missile carrying a cluster-bomb warhead.[16] The attacks demonstrated that the deaths of senior government officials had not immediately ended the movement’s ability to launch weapons toward Israel.[1][16]

In a September analysis, the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs described an intensification of Houthi attacks after the Sanaa strike, directed at Israeli cities, airports, and Red Sea shipping.[17] Its account listed drones, ballistic missiles, cluster-warhead missiles, and canister munitions among the weapons used.[17] The same commentary reported al-Houthi’s assertion that his forces had carried out 38 missile and unmanned-aircraft operations during the preceding two weeks.[17] He rejected the strike’s military significance and argued that the prime minister and his colleagues had worked in civilian ministries.[17]

Israeli security officials anticipated possible Houthi retaliation against senior Israeli figures and national infrastructure, as reported in the same commentary.[17] Katz had already invoked the biblical plagues in a warning to the Houthis around the time of the operation.[2] The military stated that the movement had acted aggressively since the beginning of the Gaza war and said operations would continue to eliminate threats to Israeli civilians.[12]

The aftermath also included intensified internal repression in Houthi-controlled territory, with crackdowns directed at perceived spies and dissenters.[16] These measures accompanied the movement’s continued attacks toward Israel.[16] In its later assessment, the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs emphasized that, despite the leadership losses, the Houthis retained military capabilities and the ability to operate against Israel and regional allies.[18]

Al-Rahawi’s death made him the highest-ranking Houthi-government figure killed by Israel up to that point.[1] The strike followed attacks on energy facilities and military infrastructure and brought the campaign directly against a gathering of senior administration officials.[1] The broader record of Israeli operations describes an expansion of strikes against Houthi targets that killed the prime minister and other civilian and military officials of the Sanaa-based government.[3]

The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs interpreted the August 28 attack as a shift from strikes on economic facilities to direct attacks on Houthi leadership.[17] Its commentary called the operation “Tipat Mazal,” described the deaths of al-Rahawi, nine ministers, and other senior figures as a major blow, and presented the strike as a change in Israel’s approach to the Yemeni theater.[17] A later analysis by the same organization argued that the operation drew on intelligence gathered over an extended period and sought to damage leadership decision-making and the management of the campaign against Israel.[18]

A September 5 Tikvah Ideas editors’ pick similarly presented the single airstrike as a major setback for the Iran-backed group, describing the prime minister and “most of the cabinet” as having been killed.[19] That assessment emphasized the concentration of senior governmental losses in one attack rather than offering a precise casualty total.[19]

The strike also raised questions about the durability of its operational benefits.[16] The continued missile and drone launches showed that government-level losses did not automatically dismantle Houthi launch capabilities.[1][18] An assessment of the post-strike environment suggested that future targeting could become more difficult as leaders concealed themselves more extensively.[16] The combination of leadership deaths, a rapid administrative succession, continued launches, and internal crackdowns shaped the immediate record of the operation’s consequences.[1][16]

The principal dispute concerns the relationship between the officials killed and Houthi military decision-making.[15][16] Israel characterized the gathering as involving officials responsible for military buildup and terrorist actions against Israel, whereas the Houthis described a government workshop and civilian ministries.[1][15] A contrasting analysis characterized most confirmed dead as politicians and technocrats from varied parties and regions rather than members of the Houthi movement, and described the administration as largely a figurehead government whose confirmed dead were not military or political decision-makers.[16]

The complete death toll and identities were not settled by the initial announcements.[1][2] Accounts variously counted al-Rahawi with nine ministers and two other officials, or described his death alongside a larger number of ministers and senior officials.[1][14] An early assessment that the entire cabinet had probably been killed was not definitive, and later reporting continued to show uncertainty over individual casualties.[4][2] Reports of the deaths of military operations chief Sakhr al-Sharqabi and Deputy Interior Minister Abd al-Majid al-Murtada, the presence of Defense Minister Mohammad al-Atifi and Chief of Staff Mohammed al-Ghamari, and an injury to Jalal Ali Ali al-Ruwaishan were not established as confirmed deaths.[14] Reporting also recorded the defense minister speaking after the deaths were announced.[2]

Descriptions of the precise location ranged from a gathering outside Sanaa or near the presidential complex to a villa in a residential neighborhood.[12][13] The detailed intelligence narrative, including personnel numbers and reported American involvement, rested on reporting and unnamed sources rather than independent verification.[13] These uncertainties concern the full circumstances and extent of the operation, not the established death of al-Rahawi and multiple ministers.[1][2]