Israel’s defense minister acknowledged for the first time that Israel killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.

Israel Katz made the comments in a speech vowing to target leaders of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement, which has been launching missiles and drones into Israel.

Haniyeh was killed inside a building in the Iranian capital in an attack widely believed to have been carried out by Israel.

Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said some progress had been made toward a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in Gaza, but he could not give a timetable for an agreement.

Previously, a senior Palestinian official told the BBC, Hamas-Israel negotiations 90% completebut key questions remain.

Katz said in his speech that Israel would “severely attack” the Houthis and “behead” their leadership.

“Just as we did with Haniyeh, (Yahya) Sinwar and (Hassan) Nasrallah in Tehran, Gaza and Lebanon, we will do the same in Hodeidah and Sana’a,” he said. are all Hezbollah and Hamas leaders killed this year.

Haniyeh, 62, is widely considered the overall leader of Hamas and played a key role in negotiations aimed at reaching a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

After the assassination, Hamas appointed Yahya Sinwar, its leader in Gaza and one of the main architects of the October 7 attack, as the organization’s overall leader.

sinwar is Killed by Israeli military during an encounter in Gaza in October The group is still electing a new leader.

Meanwhile, Hassan Nasrallah is the leader of the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah – he is Assassinated in Beirut in September Israel has sharply escalated its military operations against Hezbollah, and has been engaging in cross-border exchanges of fire with Hezbollah almost every day since the day after the October 7 attack.

The Houthis, the Iran-backed rebel group that controls northwestern Yemen, began attacking Israeli and international shipping in the Red Sea shortly after they began attacking Hamas in Gaza last October.

The group has vowed to continue until the war in Gaza is over.

On Saturday, the Israeli military said it attempted to shoot down Artillery shells fired from Yemen It was unsuccessful and the missile hit a park in Tel Aviv. A spokesman for the Houthi armed forces said that the organization used hypersonic ballistic missiles to attack military targets.

Last week, Israel launched attacks on what it called Houthi military targets, Attack on ports and energy infrastructure In Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. The United States and Britain have also attacked Houthi targets as part of operations to protect international shipping.

Hamas attacked Israel in October last year, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.

In response, Israel launched a military campaign aimed at destroying Hamas in Gaza, which has lasted for more than a year and has killed 45,317 people, according to the health ministry where Hamas operates in the Strip.

Hamas officials said the figure included 58 people killed as a result of Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours. Local medical officials said the Mawasi area has been designated a “safe zone” by the Israeli military, and three attacks killed at least 11 people. Israel says its target was a Hamas fighter.

Israel said on Monday that three soldiers had been killed in the northern Gaza Strip.

Humanitarian and human rights groups have warned of a catastrophic situation for civilians in Gaza.

Oxfam said on Sunday that only 12 trucks had been distributing food and water in northern Gaza over the past two and a half months, accusing the Israeli military of “deliberate delays and systematic obstruction”.

Oxfam added: “For three of the incidents, once food and water were delivered to the schools where people had taken refuge, they were cleared and shelled within hours.”

Israeli authorities said the report was “deliberately and inaccurate” and ignored “Israel’s extensive humanitarian efforts in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Israel insists that specific shipments “including food, water and medical supplies” were delivered to areas of northern Gaza, including Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya, where the Israeli military has been operating for months military operations. The target was Hamas militants regrouping there.

Oxfam report comes after human rights group Amnesty International accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza and Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of committing ‘genocide’ Deliberately denying Palestinian civilians in Gaza the right to adequate water.

Israel’s foreign ministry called Amnesty International’s report “completely false and based on lies,” while an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said Human Rights Watch was “once again spreading its blood libel… The facts are completely contrary to Human Rights Watch’s lies.”