Houthis storm UN building in Yemeni capital after Israel killed PM and other ministers

Iran-backed Houthi rebels stormed the headquarters of a United Nations agency in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Sunday, a day after Israel said it killed the prime minister of the rebel-controlled government.

The offices of the World Food Programme (WFP) were “entered by local security forces” on Sunday morning, a spokesperson for the agency told CNN. A WFP staff member was detained, they continued, adding that there were reports of detentions elsewhere too.

It is unclear whether the raid was related to Israel’s attacks. The Houthis have previously targeted the UN and other international organizations.

The information minister with the UN-backed government, Moammar al-Eryani, strongly condemned the Houthis’ actions, Yemeni state news agency SABA NEWS reported.

Al-Eryani said reports indicated that the Houthis also abducted the guards of a UNICEF premises, according to SABA NEWS.

A spokesperson for UNICEF told CNN that there was an “ongoing situation in Sanaa,” but was unable to provide further details.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that the strikes that killed Ahmed al-Rahawi, the prime minister of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, are “only the beginning” of his country’s campaign against the group.

Al-Rahawi was killed alongside other Houthi officials in a strike on the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Thursday, the head of the Houthis’ Supreme Political Council confirmed, vowing revenge for the attack.

The rebel group regularly launches missiles at Israel, as well as attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, in what it says is revenge for Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

Netanyahu has pledged that the Houthis will “pay a very heavy price for their aggression against the State of Israel.”

“We are doing what no one has done before us, and this is only the beginning of the strikes on senior officials in Sanaa – we will get to all of them,” the Israeli leader told a government meeting on Sunday.

Since 2014, Yemen has been split between a Houthi government which controls Sanaa and much of the north, and a rival but more widely recognized administration in the south.

CNN’s Eugenia Yosef and Max Saltman contributed to this report.

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