On Thursday, Israel’s defence minister made a very strong warning against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. He said that if the Houthis continued to attack Israel with missiles, Israel would punish them in the same way that, according to the Bible, ancient Egypt was punished with the 10 plagues.
These plagues included terrible events such as complete darkness covering the land and the death of the firstborn. He explained this in a post on social media site X (formerly Twitter), where he wrote: “The Houthis are firing missiles at Israel again. A plague of darkness, a plague of the firstborn, we will complete all 10 plagues.”
The minister was making a reference to the story in the Book of Exodus, where the Hebrew God brought 10 disasters upon Egypt to force the Pharaoh to release the Israelites, who were living as slaves at the time.
Earlier that same day, the Israeli army reported that a missile launched from Yemen landed outside of Israel’s territory. This came only one day after Israel’s defense systems had intercepted and destroyed two other missiles that were also fired from Yemen.
The Houthis, a rebel group in Yemen backed by Iran, have promised to increase their attacks against Israel. Their vow came after Israeli air strikes killed the Houthi prime minister along with 11 other senior officials last week.
Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, the Houthis have repeatedly launched both drones and missiles at Israel. They say that these attacks are meant to show support for the Palestinian people. In response, Israel has carried out a number of retaliatory strikes on Yemen. These strikes have targeted ports controlled by the Houthis, as well as the capital city of Sanaa, which is also under Houthi control.
