A senior Houthi official has declared that the Yemeni group will stand firmly with Iran in the face of Israeli aggression.

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a prominent member of the Houthis, stated, “As we did not abandon Palestine or Lebanon, we will not abandon Iran or any Muslim nation facing Israeli aggression.”

The statement comes as air defence systems in Tehran were reported to be actively intercepting an ongoing attack on the Iranian capital. Local sources confirmed that missile and drone strikes have triggered defence responses across key Iranian installations.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military reported that a missile was launched from Yemen towards Israel, prompting air raid sirens in Jerusalem. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said efforts were underway to intercept the missile before impact.

The escalation underscores growing regional volatility, with Yemen’s Houthis, Iran, and Israel all increasingly drawn into a broader conflict.

The Israeli military says it killed several senior leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Air Force in a strike, including its commander, Amir Ali Hajizadeh.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said overnight Friday it “identified that the senior chain of command of the Air Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) had assembled in an underground command center to prepare for an attack on the State of Israel.”

“As part of the combined opening strike, IAF fighter jets struck the command center where the Commander of the IRGC’s Air Force, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, was located along with other senior officials,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

Hajizadeh was killed alongside Commander of the UAV Force of the IRGC’s Air Force, Taherpour, and the Commander of the Aerial Command of the IRGC’s Air Force, Davoud Shaykhian, the IDF said, adding other senior officials were “eliminated.”

Hajizadeh’s death, which has been confirmed on Iranian state media, is a major blow to Tehran.

He headed the country’s missile program which was involved in defending the country’s air space and carrying out attacks overseas.

Hajizadeh was the mastermind of Iran’s previous attack on Israel in April 2024 as well as the missile attack on a US base in Iraq in 2020.