Israel reveals "Operation Third Thresher" in retaliation for Houthi leaders.

Arab Sea Newspaper - Special

**Arabian Sea - Reuters:** Israeli intelligence and military circles revealed on Saturday new details regarding an "unconventional" attack that targeted a meeting of Houthi leaders in Sanaa. Israeli observers and commentators described this attack as similar in complexity and planning to the famous "Brain" operation that targeted Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, stressing that the similarity lies in the level of precise planning and not in the nature of the weapons used. The military analyst for the "Maariv" newspaper, Avi Ashkenazi, described the recent attack on the Houthi leaders as "Operation Brain III." He explained that this operation came as a direct punishment for the "Houthis" developing a new "fragmentation" missile, which confused Israeli air defenses and forced the Air Force to open an urgent investigation to confront this qualitative challenge, after "Brain I" was against Hezbollah leaders and "Brain II" was a preemptive strike in the 12-day war between Israel and Iran. **Surpassed Lebanon's "Brain"** Israeli estimates exaggerated that Thursday's attack, the features of which have not yet become fully clear, even surpassed the "Brain" operation in Lebanon, based on the distance from Israel, which counts in favor of this operation, as it was carried out remotely more than two thousand kilometers away. The new details, reported by several Hebrew media outlets, revealed that the operation almost wasn't carried out at the last moments, and the fighters were going to return without an attack, or head to other targets, even though they were equipped with tons of bombs, waiting for the green light to bomb a meeting of the Houthi government in a secret building in Sanaa. The fighters waited for some time because the Chief of Staff of the Houthi group, whom Israel had previously tried to assassinate a few months ago during the Israeli-Iranian war, was scheduled to arrive at the meeting, but it was not clear whether he would actually arrive or not. Before issuing the order for the pilots to return without bombing, it was decided to target the building, where almost all the ministers of the "Houthi" government were already present, including the Ministers of Interior and Defense, who are considered the pivotal figures alongside the Chief of Staff in managing military affairs in Yemen. According to the Hebrew newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth," Israel is still investigating whether the strike succeeded in eliminating Defense Minister Mohammed al-Atifi and Chief of Staff Mohammed Abdul Karim al-Ghamari. **The Red Phone** According to the Israeli narrative, intelligence informed headquarters that all those targeted for assassination were in the building except possibly the Chief of Staff. The Chief of Staff, Eyal Zamir, informed his Minister of Defense, Yisrael Katz, and the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, via the secret red phone. The Air Force Commander, Tomer Bar, and his men received updates all the way about the fuel status of the attack aircraft and the time of their entry from the waiting area to the attack in Sanaa, which is located deep in the populated area of Yemen. From the moment the Prime Minister approved the attack, the Israeli fighters entered the target area one after the other, and in a split second dropped 10 bombs, each weighing a ton of explosives, on the building. The Israeli army estimates that none of the building's occupants could survive such a bomb, but it has not yet officially confirmed the matter, in an indication of the need for the Israeli intelligence network in Yemen to develop further, due to its inability to verify the information within 48 hours, and the "Houthis'" ability to camouflage it. A military source familiar with the operation told "Yedioth Ahronoth," "The success of the operation came thanks to the insistence of the actors from below," meaning the agents who were recruited during the recent period. **Eliminating the Heads** So far, Israeli army estimates indicate the elimination of the Houthi Prime Minister and a number of ministers, and perhaps the Chief of Staff as well, despite the Houthi denial, and talk about the appearance of some of those Tel Aviv says it eliminated. The Israeli army confirmed that preparations are underway for a retaliatory response from Yemen, but not based on an intelligence warning, but as an assessment of the situation. According to Israeli military sources, the complex operation was led by a specialized team from military intelligence and the Air Force, which insisted on pressing for unprecedented action, admitting that the information was partial and not complete at one stage. The Chief of Staff referred to the attack for the first time in his assessment of the current situation, saying: "We carried out a major attack against strategic targets of the Houthi regime in Yemen, as it operates as a branch he described as terrorist for Iran, and continues to attack Israel and undermine regional and international stability. Adding: Our message is clear that there is no room for containment anymore."