Thousands attend funeral of Houthi leaders killed by Israeli strike, vow revenge

Thousands of mourners attended a funeral at the largest mosque in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Monday for 12 senior Houthi figures, including their prime minister, who were killed by an Israeli strike.

Last Thursday's attack, the first to kill top officials, struck a large number of people who had gathered to watch a televised speech recorded by top Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, and it left most members of the group's cabinet dead.

Mourners chanted the Houthi slogan "God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam", as Mohammed Miftah, now de facto head of the Iran-aligned government in Sanaa, vowed revenge as well as an internal security crackdown against spies.

"We are facing the strongest intelligence empire in the world, the one that targeted the government - the whole Zionist entity (comprising) the U.S. administration, the Zionist entity, the Zionist Arabs and the spies inside Yemen," Miftah told the crowd of mourners at the Al Saleh mosque.

Miftah became the acting head of the Houthis' government on Saturday following the death in the Israeli strike of Prime Minister Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahwi. Al-Rahwi was largely a figurehead and not part of the inner circle of power.

Miftah had previously been his deputy.

A raid on the United Nations offices in Sanaa on Sunday led to the detention of at least 11 U.N. personnel, the body said. The Houthis have given no reason for the raid but they have held a number of Yemeni employees of the U.N. and other aid agencies in the past on suspicion of spying.

Israel said on Friday its airstrike had targeted the Houthis' chief of staff, defence minister and other senior officials and that it was verifying the outcome.      

The fate of the Houthis' powerful defence minister, Mohamed al-Atifi, who runs the Missiles Brigades Group, remains unclear as he has not made an appearance since the attack.

THORN IN ISRAEL'S SIDE

Abdul Malik al-Houthi, who remains alive, has emerged in recent years as one of Iran's most prominent Arab allies and an enduring thorn in Israel's side after it weakened many of its enemies in the region, including Lebanon's Hezbollah.   

Since Israel's war in Gaza against the Palestinian militant group Hamas began in October 2023, the Houthis have attacked vessels in the Red Sea in what they describe as acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.

The Red Sea attacks have drawn U.S. and Israeli strikes. In May, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would stop bombing the Houthis after a brief campaign, saying the group had agreed to halt interrupting important shipping lanes in the Middle East.

But the Houthis, one of Iran's few allies still standing since the Gaza war spilled across the Middle East, vowed to continue attacking Israel and Israeli-linked shipping. 

The Houthis said on Monday they had launched a missile towards the Liberia-flagged Israeli-owned tanker 'Scarlet Ray' ship near Saudi Arabia's Red Sea port city of Yanbu.