At least 3 dead and 87 injured, Houthis say, as Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen a day after drone attack in Tel Aviv

CNN
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At least three people were killed and dozens more injured in Israeli air strikes on a Yemeni port, Houthi rebels said a day after the Iran-backed group claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its warplanes attacked “military targets of the terrorist Houthi regime” in the area of ​​the Yemeni port of Hodeidah on Saturday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this was a direct response to the death of a 50-year-old Israeli in a Houthis’ drone attack on Tel Aviv on Friday.

According to Israeli officials, this is the first time Israel has attacked Yemen.

The Houthi-run Al Masirah television station said the attacks targeted oil facilities in the port on Yemen’s west coast, killing at least three people and wounding 87, most of them with “severe burns.”

Houthis spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said the attacks also hit civilian targets and a power plant. He condemned the “brutal Israeli aggression” aimed at increasing the “suffering of the Yemeni people” and urging the group to end its support for Gaza.

Houthi army spokesman Yehya Saree announced a response to the attack. He said the Houthis would not hesitate to attack Israel’s “vital targets” and warned that Tel Aviv – a major city with numerous diplomatic missions – was still not safe.

“We have prepared for a long war with this enemy until the aggression stops and the blockade of the Palestinian people is lifted,” Saree said.

Netanyahu said in a statement on Saturday that Hodeidah was “not an innocent port.”

“It was used for military purposes, it served as an entry point for lethal weapons that Iran supplied to the Houthis,” Netanyahu said, adding that Hodeidah had also been used to attack international shipping in the Red Sea.

Netanyahu also said the operation, which hit targets 1,800 kilometers from the Israeli border, showed that enemy Israel was serious about responding to the threats.

“It makes it clear to our enemies that there is no place that the long arm of the State of Israel will not reach,” Netanyahu said.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that its air defense system intercepted a surface-to-surface missile that came from Yemen. “The missile did not reach Israeli territory,” the Israeli military said in a statement, although sirens were sounded because of the possibility of falling shrapnel.

In a statement on Sunday, the Houthi rebels said they had fired “a series of ballistic missiles” towards Israel, adding that the salvo “successfully hit its targets”.

The group said it carried out the operation against “key targets” in the area of ​​Umm al-Rashrash, also called Eilat, an Israeli city on the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a UN statement that he was “deeply concerned” about reports of the attacks.

“The response to Israeli aggression against our land will inevitably come and will be huge and massive,” the Houthi rebels warned in the statement, adding that they would continue their operations against Israeli, American and British ships until Israel ends its “siege” of the Gaza Strip.

“The Secretary-General calls on all parties to avoid attacks that could harm civilians and damage civilian infrastructure,” the statement said.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said the attacks were also a response to the approximately 200 missiles the rebel group had fired at Israel since October, when Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip began.

Since the war began, Yemeni rebels have regularly attacked the country with drones and missiles, most of which have been intercepted by Israel’s defenses or those of its allies. However, the Houthis claimed their drone attack in Tel Aviv on Friday – which also wounded 10 people – was carried out by a new drone capable of “evading the enemy’s interception systems.”

In addition, the Houthis regularly attacked US targets and merchant shipping in the Red Sea.

Both the UK and the US responded to the ship attacks with attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen. However, Israel did not participate in these responses.

An Israeli defense official told CNN that it was a 100 percent Israeli attack. The official said Israel had previously let the US and Britain take the lead in responding to Houthi attacks, but this time decided to respond on its own due to the death of the Israeli citizen in Tel Aviv.

According to the official, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant informed US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin before the attack.

The defense official added that Israel was able to strike so quickly because it had been preparing for this scenario for months.

A White House official said US President Joe Biden had been briefed on the “developments” in the Middle East. A spokesman for the White House National Security Council said the US had not coordinated the airstrikes with Israel, but added that the US fully recognizes “Israel’s right to self-defense.”

The Houthi movement, also known as Ansar Allah – Arabic for “followers of God” – is a Shiite Islamist political and military organization that emerged in the 1990s and is supported by Iran.

The Houthis’ official slogan is similar to the slogans of the Lebanese-based Iranian proxy party Hezbollah and is: “God is greatest. Death to America. Death to Israel. Cursed be the Jews. Victory to Islam.”

In 2014, Houthi forces allied with former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh seized control of the Yemeni capital Sanaa from the UN-recognized Yemeni government, triggering a civil war that has shaken the country ever since.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have led a coalition against the Houthi forces in Yemen.

More recently, the group has been seen in parts of the predominantly Sunni Muslim world and beyond as a champion of the Palestinian cause, defending the people of Gaza against Israel.

Since October 7, Houthi rebels have carried out numerous missile and drone attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, claiming those vessels were linked to Israel and its allies, escalating tensions across the Middle East.

In recent weeks, Hezbollah has stepped up its cross-border attacks on Israel after months of low-intensity fighting, prompting the Israeli military to warn that it was ready for a large-scale assault on the country’s northern border.

After the attack on Hodeidah, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir congratulated Netanyahu on the operation and said Israel should “pursue the same policy against Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Gallant echoed Ben Gvir’s sentiments. Smotrich said Israel must continue its attacks “with all its might, even in distant areas,” while Gallant said “the blood of Israeli citizens has its price” and that wherever Israelis are attacked, “the result will be identical.”

“The fire currently burning in Hodeidah is visible throughout the Middle East and its significance is clear,” Gallant said.

Hezbollah in Lebanon condemned the attack on Yemen and said: “We stand firmly with the Yemeni people and defend them, their sovereignty and their heroic and historic stance alongside Palestine.”

Hamas also condemned the attack and called it a “dangerous escalation.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called on the international community to “maximize sanctions against Iran.”

“Iran supports, trains and finances the Houthi terrorist organization as part of its regional network of terrorist organizations whose goal is to attack Israel,” he said.

“Iran is the head of the snake – it must be stopped now,” Katz added.

Iran condemned the Israeli attack on Hodeidah. Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani warned of a risk of war in the region and said Israel’s actions in Gaza were the “root” of escalating tensions.

“The oppressed but powerful people of Yemen are paying the price for their honorable support of the innocent citizens, women and children of Gaza,” Kanaani said.