On August 28, Israel launched an air strike on the Yemeni capital Sana’a that assassinated much of the Houthi-appointed cabinet, including the prime minister, Ahmad al-Rahawi, nine other ministers, and two senior officials. Most likely others were killed and their names will eventually emerge.
The bombing is certainly the most successful Israeli attack on the organization’s senior personnel to date, striking civilian officials who were holding a meeting to evaluate “the government’s activities and performance over the past year.”
The Israeli defense minister Israel Katz boasted that his country’s forces had “dealt an unprecedented crushing blow to the top security-political leadership of the Houthi terror organization.” However, this overstated the significance of what had happened, since the prime minister and his cabinet were more like civil servants, carrying out government tasks on behalf of the real Houthi leadership.
On the international stage, governments and media outlets largely ignored this attack on senior civilians engaged in their administrative and management responsibilities. This was in spite of the fact that it constituted a fundamental breach of international law.
On August 22, a Houthi missile strike against Israel had used cluster munitions. This was an unprecedented escalation that posed a more serious threat than the many earlier attacks on Israeli territory, given the lasting risks of injury and death from the dispersed bomblets of this type of internationally banned weaponry.
Although there was prompt Israeli
Auteur: Helen Lackner
