ADEN, Yemen (AP) — Hundreds of Yemenis in the capital city of Sanaa mourned Monday morning the loss of Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi, who was killed Thursday along with a number of ministers and government officials by an Israeli airstrike.
Attendees gathered for the funeral of the Houthi officials, which was held at Shaab Mosque and broadcast by Al-Masirah TV, a Houthi-controlled satellite news channel.
Crowds inside the mosque, where funeral prayers were held, chanted against Israel and the United States as they mourned the deaths of the officials, including the foreign affairs, media and culture, and industrial ministers.
Funeral attendees Ahmed Khaled and Fathy Mahmoud told the AP that families of the officials arrived in ambulances for the funeral, where the bodies were placed in caskets inside the mosque.
“We’re participating in this funeral because Israel killed those officials and that’s enough reason to attend their funeral,” Ahmed Azam, another attendee, told the AP.
Al-Rahawi was the most senior Houthi official to be killed in the Israeli-U.S. campaign against the Iranian-backed rebel group. Other ministers and officials were wounded, the statement added without providing details.
The Houthis said in a statement earlier that the officials were targeted during a “routine workshop held by the government to evaluate its activities and performance over the past year.”
“We entered a huge and influential war and clashed with the U.S. This war was not only military-focused but also economic as Israel targeted everything,” Acting Houthi Prime Minister Mohamed Muftah said in his address at the funeral Monday.
He confirmed that despite Israeli attacks, ports are still functioning and that there is no food or fuel crisis.
The Aug. 24 strike came three days after the Houthis launched a ballistic missile toward Israel that they said was the first cluster bomb launch since 2023.
Separately, Yemen's Houthi rebels said Monday they launched a missile at an oil tanker off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, potentially renewing their attacks targeting shipping through the crucial global waterway.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for the launch in a prerecorded message aired on Al-Masirah. He alleged the vessel, the Liberian-flagged Scarlet Ray, had ties to Israel.
However, the maritime security firm Ambrey described the ship as fitting the Houthis' “target profile, as the vessel is publicly Israeli owned.”
Eastern Pacific is a company that is ultimately controlled by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer. Eastern Pacific previously has been targeted in suspected Iranian attacks.
In a statement, Eastern Pacific said that “the vessel has not sustained any damage and continues to operate under the command of its Master. All crew members onboard the Scarlet Ray are safe and accounted for.”
The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, which monitors Mideast shipping, earlier reported a ship heard a splash and a bang off its side near Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.
The Houthi rebels have been launching missile and drone attacks on Israel and on ships in the Red Sea in response to the war in Gaza, saying they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians. Their attacks over the past two years have upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which about $1 trillion of goods pass each year.
From November 2023 to December 2024, the Houthis targeted more than 100 ships with missiles and drones over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. In their campaign so far, the Houthis have sunk four vessels and killed at least eight mariners.
The Iranian-backed Houthis stopped their attacks during a brief ceasefire in the war. They later became the target of an intense weekslong campaign of airstrikes ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump before he declared a ceasefire had been reached with the rebels. The Houthis sank two vessels in July, killing at least four on board with others believed to be held by the rebels.
The Houthis’ fresh attacks come as a new, possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war remains in the balance. Meanwhile, the future of talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s battered nuclear program is in question after Israel launched a 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in which the Americans bombed three Iranian atomic sites.
Israel launched a series of airstrikes last week that killed the Houthi prime minister and several Cabinet members. The Houthis’ attack on the ship appears to be a response, along with Sunday’s raids on U.N. agency offices, where at least 11 employees were detained.
A U.N. official said the world body was unable to contact many of its staff in the Houthi-held areas as of Monday morning. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, said the 11 U.N. staffers who were detained include international and local workers, and a senior international official. The rebel group also seized documents and other materials from the U.N. offices, according to the official. ___
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Magdy and Khaled from Cairo.
The Latest
Featured
