JERUSALEM – Israel issued its strongest threat yet against Iran on May 8, warning it would do to it what it has done to Hamas in Gaza after an attack on Ben Gurion Airport by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Along with Hezbollah and Hamas, Yemen’s Houthi rebels are part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” against Israel and its ally the United States.

They claim their repeated attacks on Israel and on shipping in the Red Sea are in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas sparked a war in October 2023 by launching an unprecedented attack on Israel.

Israel hit back against the Houthis’ attack on its main airport on May 4 by striking the airport in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, as well as three power stations in the impoverished country.

“I warn... Iranian leaders who finance, arm and exploit the Houthi terrorist organisation: the proxy system is terminated and the axis of evil has collapsed,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

“You are directly responsible. What we have done to Hezbollah in Beirut, to Hamas in Gaza, to (now ousted Syrian president Bashar) Assad in Damascus, we will do to you in Tehran too.”

Warning that Israel would not allow “any entity to harm Israel”, Mr Katz added: “Israel should be able to defend itself... against any threat and against any enemy. This has been the case with several challenges in the past, and it will continue to be the case in future.

“Anyone who attacks us will be severely struck.”

Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen

In Syria, an Islamist-led rebel alliance toppled Dr Assad in December, effectively cutting off the supply route from Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, like the Houthis, also began cross-border attacks on Israel following the 2023 attack by Hamas.

In a year of hostilities across the Lebanese-Israeli border that ended with a November truce, the Israeli army all but crushed Hezbollah.

Hamas’ leadership has been decimated in the Gaza war and much of the territory that the movement rules has been destroyed.

Iran has denied supporting the Houthis in their attack on Ben Gurion A...