Nearly two months after an Israeli airstrike targeted a gathering of senior Houthi officials in Yemen’s capital, killing the group’s prime minister and several ministers, the Yemeni news site Defense Line, which opposes the Iran-backed rebel group, reported overnight Tuesday that the condition of the Houthi defense minister, Mohammed Nasser al-Atifi, is rapidly deteriorating. According to the report, al-Atifi has been hospitalized since August 28, the day of the strike.
Sources told the outlet that al-Atifi was wounded in a separate attack targeting a Houthi command post near the building where the group’s government had convened. Security sources said that since the series of strikes, there has been no communication or movement from al-Atifi. He was also absent Monday from the funeral of the Houthi chief of staff, Muhammad Abdul Karim al-Ghamari.
The report added that the Houthi interior minister, Abdul Karim Amiruddin Husayn al-Houthi, is injured as well and, according to reports, has not appeared in public for several months.
As before the announcement of their chief of staff’s killing, the Houthis have continued in recent weeks to publish statements purportedly issued by the defense minister — including, most recently, a message of condolence following al-Ghamari’s death.
After the series of Israeli strikes that killed the Houthi prime minister and other ministers, Yemeni officials have sought to project business as usual. Saudi-owned Al Arabiya reported that al-Ghamari was killed in the August 28 strike. However, a Yemeni security source said he was wounded in a different attack — one that Israeli sources said took place during a khat-chewing meeting — and later died of his wounds. Despite that, statements continued to be issued in his name until the announcement of his death.
Two days after the strike on the senior officials, reports emerged that al-Atifi had also been injured. Following the confirmation of the chief of staff’s death, Houthi-affiliated media published a statement attributed to al-Atifi offering condolences, but the message was not accompanied by any footage. Since reports of his injury, no evidence has surfaced confirming his condition.