Minutes before IDF pilots carried out airstrikes in an attempt to eliminate the entire Houthi leadership, the pilots were ordered to hold fire and were forced to circle over Yemen for an hour and a half, Channel 12 News reported on Sunday.

The operation had already been called off when, at the last moment, a golden piece of intelligence was received.

The report explained that in the early morning hours of Thursday, August 28, IDF intelligence officials began to receive information about a high-level Houthi meeting scheduled to take place in Sana’a, with the participation of the Houthi prime minister and his senior ministers.

Shortly later, Air Force planes were scrambled and began their journey towards the target.

However, a few minutes before the IDF fighter pilots reached Sana’a and launched their airstrikes, they received an order to halt. For the next hour and a half, the pilots circled over Yemen, waiting for an order to strike. The order never came, and instead, they were instructed to turn around and return to Israel.

It was only then, after the operation had already been effectively canceled, that the crucial piece of intelligence confirming that the entire Houthi leadership had shown up for the meeting was received. The fighter jets, which had already begun their return journey to Israel, backtracked and just 15 minutes later, dropped their bombs on the target, wiping out almost the entire Houthi cabinet.

The IDF confirmed this past Thursday that 12 senior Houthi officials were eliminated in the attack, dubbed Operation Lucky Drop.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)