JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen early Sunday, hours after Israeli warplanes struck several Houthi positions in the country on the Arabian Peninsula.
The Israeli airstrikes came in retaliation for a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv, marking the first time Israel is known to have responded to repeated Houthi attacks across the country. Nine months of war The escalation of violence between the far-flung enemies threatens to open a new front as Israel battles a wave of attacks against Hamas. Iranian Agent Across the entire region.
The Israeli military confirmed the airstrikes late Saturday on the Houthi stronghold of the port city of Hodeidah in western Yemen. It said the strikes, carried out by US-made F-15 and F-35 fighter jets, were in retaliation for hundreds of attacks by the Houthi rebels.
Yemen’s Health Ministry said six people were killed and 83 were wounded, many with severe burns, in the Israeli strikes. Three more people were missing, the health ministry said in a statement carried by the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV.
“All this will not stop the Yemeni people, the Yemeni leadership, the army and the missile forces from attacking Israeli entities,” said Moatasem Abdel Salah, a Sanaa resident.
Israel, along with the United States, Britain and other Western allies who have troops in the region, has intercepted nearly all of the Houthi missiles and drones. But early Friday, a Houthi drone penetrated Israeli air defenses and crashed in Israel’s commercial and cultural capital, Tel Aviv, killing one person.
The Israeli military said Saturday’s attack took place about 1,700 kilometers (more than 1,000 miles) from Israel, marking one of the most complex and long-distance operations by its air force. It said it struck the port because the area is used by Iran to ship weapons to Yemen.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed to carry out similar strikes “wherever necessary.”
The Houthis are one of several Iranian-backed groups that have attacked Israel in solidarity with Hamas since an Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian militants triggered Israel’s offensive against Gaza.
In addition to battling Hamas, Israeli forces are engaged in daily clashes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants, raising fears the fighting could escalate into a full-scale war with Lebanon and beyond.
The port of Hodeidah is also a gateway for supplies into Yemen, which has been embroiled in civil war since 2014. Houthis Iran seized control of much of northern Yemen, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year to support government forces, eventually turning the conflict into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
More than 150,000 people, including combatants and civilians, were killed in the war. The world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam posted on X that “blatant Israeli attacks” targeted fuel storage facilities and a power plant in the province. He said the attack was aimed at “increasing the suffering of the people and pressuring Yemen to stop supporting Gaza.”
Abdulsalam said the attack would only strengthen the Yemeni people and army’s resolve to support Gaza. “The attack will have a major impact,” Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, chairman of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, wrote on Twitter.
The Israeli military said the surface-to-surface missile fired on Sunday was intercepted before it reached Israeli territory.
Since January, US and British forces have been striking targets in Yemen in retaliation for attacks on merchant ships that the Houthis say are retaliation for Israeli actions in the Gaza war, although many of the vessels attacked have no connection to Israel.
Officials said on Sunday that the Houthis had repeatedly attacked a Liberian-flagged container ship passing through the Red Sea, the group’s latest attack on a vital maritime trade route.
The British military’s UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre said the captain reported attacks by three Houthi boats, a drone and a missile off the coast of Mocha, Yemen, causing “minor damage” to the vessel. The coalition’s Joint Maritime Intelligence Centre, overseen by the US Navy, confirmed the vessel was the Pumba and reported that “all crew members are safe.”
Early Sunday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack on Pumba island.
Analysts and Western intelligence agencies have long accused Iran of supplying weapons to the Houthis, a charge Tehran denies, and joint airstrikes so far have done little to deter the rebels.
Weapons experts say the Houthis have long-range ballistic missiles, smaller cruise missiles and “suicide drones” capable of reaching southern Israel. The Houthis have open arsenals and regularly demonstrate new missiles in the streets of Sana’a.
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Michael Wakin reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
