Houthi chief Muhammad Abd al-Karim al-Ghamari, the Iran-backed terror group’s chief of staff, was confirmed dead Thursday following an Israeli strike that targeted him in August. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that “another chief-of-staff in the line of terror chiefs who aimed to harm us was eliminated.”
The Houthis said al-Ghamari died “while fulfilling his duties” and vowed that Israel will “receive its deterrent punishment for the crimes it has committed,” according to Reuters. The strike that killed al-Ghamari also eliminated the Houthi prime minister, foreign minister, and at least 10 senior officials in Sanaa, the group’s stronghold in Yemen.
Al-Ghamari had been sanctioned by both the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.N. Security Council for destabilizing Yemen and supporting Iran’s regional terror network. Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said the slain commander “joined his thwarted comrades of the evil axis in the depths of hell.”
Since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the Houthis have launched dozens of missiles and drones at Israeli territory in what they claim is solidarity with Hamas. The State Department earlier this year re-designated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization following their repeated assaults on Israeli, American, and international vessels in the Red Sea—more than 100 attacks between November 2023 and December 2024, according to Reuters.
Israel’s latest operation underscores its continued campaign to dismantle Iran’s terror proxies and protect its borders from ongoing regional threats.
