JERUSALEM: Israel will do to Iran what it has done to Hamas in Gaza, Defence Minister Israel Katz warned on Thursday (May 8), days after an attack on Ben Gurion airport by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
“I warn … Iranian leaders who finance, arm and exploit the Houthi terrorist organisation: the proxy system is terminated and the axis of evil has collapsed,” Katz said in a statement.
“You are directly responsible. What we have done to Hezbollah in Beirut, to Hamas in Gaza, to (now ousted Syrian president Bashar) Assad in Damascus, we will do to you in Tehran too.”
Along with Hezbollah and Hamas, Yemen’s Houthi rebels are part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” against Israel and its ally, the United States.
Hezbollah began launching attacks in October 2023 in support of its ally Hamas following its unprecedented attack on southern Israel.
In a year of hostilities that ended with a November truce, the Israeli army all but crushed Hezbollah, while Hamas’s leadership has been decimated in the war sparked by the Oct 7 attack.
