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CAIRO: The Houthis said Saturday an Israeli airstrike killed the prime minister of the militant-controlled government in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, the most senior Houthi official killed in the Israeli-US campaign against the Iranian-backed militants.

Ahmed Al-Rahawi was killed in a Thursday strike in Sanaa along with a number of ministers, the militants said in a statement. Other ministers and officials were wounded, the statement added without providing further details.

The premier was targeted along with other members of his Houthi-controlled government during a “routine workshop held by the government to evaluate its activities and performance over the past year,” the Houthi statement said.

Thursday’s Israeli strike occurred as the militants-owned television station was broadcasting a speech for Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, the secretive leader of the militant group where he was sharing updates on the latest Gaza developments and vowing retaliation against Israel. Senior Houthi officials used to gather to watch Al-Houthi’s pre-recorded speeches.

On Thursday, The Israeli military said that it “precisely struck a Houthi terrorist regime military target in the area of Sanaa in Yemen.” The military had no immediate comment on Saturday’s announcement of the prime minister’s killing.

The prime minister hailed from the southern province of Abyan, and was an ally to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. He allied himself with the Houthis when the militants overran Sanaa, and much of the north and center of the country in 2014, initiating the country’s long-running civil war. He was appointed as prime minister in August 2024.

Al-Rahawi is the most senior Houthi official to be killed since the United States and Israel began their air and naval campaign in response to the militants’ missile and drone attacks on Israel and on ships in the Red Sea.

The Houthis launched a campaign targeting ships in response to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, saying they were doing so in solidarity with the Palestinians. Their attacks over the past two years have upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which about $1 trillion of goods passes each year.

In May, the Trump administration announced a deal with the Houthis to end the airstrikes in return for an end to attacks on shipping. The militants, however, said the agreement did not include halting attacks on targets it believed were aligned with Israel.

DUBAI: The UAE has sent its ninth Hamdan humanitarian ship on Saturday to deliver vital supplies for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as part of the country’s continuing ‘Operation Chivalrous Knight 3’ relief campaign.

The ship departed from Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi and will dock at Egypt’s Al-Arish Port, where its cargo will be unloaded and subsequently delivered for residents in the besieged enclave, state news agency WAM reported.

The ship carries a total of 7,000 tonnes of relief supplies, including 5,000 tonnes of food parcels, 1,900 tonnes of food items to support community kitchens, 100 tonnes of medical tents for healthcare facilities and five fully equipped ambulances, WAM added.

The UAE and Cyprus have earlier engaged in a joint initiative to deliver vital humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, under the Amalthea Maritime Corridor program established in March 2024, to complement other international efforts to send aid to Gaza by land, air and sea.

The UAE also inaugurated a 7.5-km pipeline that will deliver desalinated water from Emirati desalination plants in Egypt to the Gaza Strip.

The pipeline, built under the UAE’s Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, has a capacity of about 2 million gallons per day, serving about 1 million people.