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Israeli jets attack Yemeni rebels after deadly attack on Tel Aviv

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Hodeida, Yemen:

Israeli warplanes attacked the Houthi-controlled Yemeni port city of Hodeidah on Saturday, a day after a Houthi rebel drone strike killed a civilian in Tel Aviv, both sides said.

The attacks, which sparked fierce fires and plumes of black smoke, were the first Israel has claimed responsibility for in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country, some 1,800 kilometers away, analysts said.

“The blood of Israeli citizens has its price,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said after the attacks on Hodeida, adding that further operations against the Iran-backed Houthis would follow “if they dare to attack us.”

“The fire currently burning in Hodeida is visible throughout the Middle East and its significance is clear.”

Just hours after Friday’s attack in Tel Aviv, Gallant announced that Israel would retaliate against the Houthis, who control large parts of Yemen, including much of the Red Sea coast.

The Israeli military said its warplanes hit “military targets of the terrorist Houthi regime” on Saturday, a day after a civilian was killed in a drone strike in Tel Aviv claimed by Yemeni rebels.

Israeli “fighter jets attacked military targets of the Houthi terror regime in the area of ​​the port of Hodeidah in Yemen in response to the hundreds of attacks carried out against the State of Israel in recent months,” a military statement said.

The Houthis have previously claimed responsibility for attacks on Israeli cities such as Ashdod, Haifa and Eilat, but Friday’s attack on Tel Aviv appears to have been the first to breach Israel’s much-vaunted air defenses.

“Brutal aggression”

In a statement on social media, senior Houthi official Mohammed Abdulsalam spoke of “brutal Israeli aggression against Yemen.”

The attack targeted “fuel storage facilities and a power plant” in Hodeidah to pressure Yemen to end its support for the Palestinians in the Gaza war, he said.

The Houthi-run health ministry said there were deaths and injuries in the attacks on Hodeida, but did not give an exact number of casualties.

A statement from the Houthi-run Al Masirah television station said several people had suffered “severe burns”.

Footage broadcast by Al Masirah, which AFP could not independently verify, showed a massive fire on the seafront promenade, with a large cloud of black smoke rising into the sky.

An AFP correspondent in Hodeida reported hearing several large explosions and seeing smoke over the port.

Fuel pumps have been shut down across the port city, a vital lifeline for imports and international aid to millions of needy Yemenis after more than a decade of war.

Hodeidah has been hit hard by a series of attacks by Britain and the US since January. The attacks were a response to attacks by Houthi rebels on merchant ships in the Red Sea.

The Houthis have attacked at least 88 merchant ships since November in what they say is a campaign targeting Israeli-linked ships supporting the Palestinians in the Gaza war.

After the drone attack in Tel Aviv, UN chief Antonio Guterres called for “maximum restraint” to avoid “further escalation in the region”.

But Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi political bureau, immediately threatened revenge for the attacks on Hodeida.

“The Zionist entity will pay the price for attacks on civilian facilities, and we will meet escalation with escalation,” he said in a social media post.

The port of Hodeidah, a key entry point for imports and international aid to Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen, has remained largely untouched during the decade-long war between the rebels and the internationally recognized government backed by neighboring Saudi Arabia.

“Traders now fear that this will exacerbate the already critical food security and humanitarian situation in northern Yemen, as the majority of trade passes through this port,” said Mohammed Albasha, senior Middle East analyst at the U.S.-based Navanti Group.

He said the Israeli attacks were “likely to be perceived by many Yemenis as an attack on their homeland, which could strengthen Houthis’ recruitment and funding.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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