Yemen's Houthi rebels have confirmed that their self-proclaimed prime minister, Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser al-Rahawi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike earlier this week.

The Iran-backed insurgent group said that several of its leaders were killed when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacked Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on Thursday.

The Israeli military then said it struck a Houthi “military target” in the Sanaa area, without giving further details.

The Houthis have controlled much of northwest Yemen since 2014 after ousting the internationally recognized government from Sanaa and sparking a devastating civil war.

The Houthis said Rahawi was killed along with several Houthi ministers, though they did not name the others.

The Saudi news website al-Hadath reported that the Houthi foreign minister, as well as the ministers of justice, youth and sports, social affairs, and labor, were killed.

The office of Mahdi al-Mashat, the Houthi president, said several other ministers “sustained moderate and serious injuries” as a result of the attack.

He added that Muhammad Ahmed Miftah, currently the Houthi deputy prime minister, would take over from Rahawi.

Rahawi had held his post since August 2024 and was largely seen as a symbolic figure for the movement rather than part of the decision-making circle that plans military operations.

Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the movement's supreme leader, but not the group's defense minister or chief of staff, is among the reported victims of Thursday's attack.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the Houthis have regularly launched missiles into Israel and attacked commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, claiming to be acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Israel, in turn, has carried out airstrikes against targets in Houthi-held parts of Yemen, with the stated aim of curbing their attacks.

Last week,Israel said it had struck Houthi targets in Sanaa in response to a missile attack by rebels that Israel said was carrying cluster munitions.