Israel threatens to bring biblical plagues to Yemen’s Houthis
Israel’s defence minister has threatened to unleash the ten biblical plagues of Egypt upon Yemen’s Houthi rebels in response to the rebel’s missile attacks on Israel, The Arab Weekly plus agencies reported on September 5th.
The Israeli defence minister Israel Katz published a tweet on X, which read: “The Houthis are firing missiles at Israel again. A plague of darkness, a plague of the firstborn, we will complete all ten plagues.”
Katz alludes to the plagues from the book of Exodus which the Hebrew God brought upon Egypt to push the pharaoh to free the enslaved Israelites. Katz directly invoked the “plague of the firstborn.”
On September 4th, Israel’s army said a Yemeni missile struck just outside Israeli territory, a day after Israel had intercepted two other Yemeni missiles. These missiles were launched after Israeli air strikes killed prominent Houthi leaders on August 28th.
Following the Israeli air strike on August 28th, the Houthis have detained at least 18 UN staff members, a number previously reported as 11.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric has said “that the safety and security of UN personnel and property must be guaranteed and that the inviolability of UN premises must be respected at all times.”
The Houthis have justified their ongoing missile strikes on Israel by stating that they show their solidarity with the people of Gaza – whose land has been the target of accelerating Israeli attacks since October 2023. The International Association of Genocide Scholars said on September 1st that Israel’s military operations within Gaza now fit the legal criteria for genocide.
Nearly all missiles launched by the Houthis have been intercepted or fallen short of reaching their targets.
The Houthis control the most populated regions of Yemen and have also been attacking ships in the red sea since October 2023.
The Arab Weekly plus agencies, AFP, Maghrebi.org
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