CNN
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At least three people were killed and dozens were injured. Israel Iran-backed Houthi rebels announced they carried out airstrikes on a Yemeni port, a day after declaring a deadly attack on the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Saturday that its warplanes had struck “military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime” near Yemen’s port of Hodeidah. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this was in direct retaliation for the death of a 50-year-old Israeli in a Houthi attack. Drone attack on Tel Aviv on friday.
According to Israeli officials, this is the first time Israel has attacked Yemen.
The Houthi-run Al-Masira TV said the attack targeted an oil facility in a port on Yemen’s western coast, killing at least three people and wounding 87, most of them with “severe burns”.
Houthis Spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said the strikes also hit civilian facilities and a power station. He condemned Israel’s “brutal aggression” aimed at increasing “the suffering of the Yemeni people” and pressuring the group to stop aiding Gaza.
Houthi military spokesman Yehya Saree vowed to respond with strikes, saying the Houthis would not hesitate to attack Israeli “high-value targets” and warning that the major city of Tel Aviv, home to many diplomatic missions, remained unsafe.
“We are preparing for a long war with this enemy until the aggression stops and the blockade against the Palestinian people is lifted,” Salih said.
In a statement on Saturday, Prime Minister Netanyahu said Hodeida was “not an innocent port.”
“It was used for military purposes and as an entry point for lethal weapons supplied by Iran to the Houthis,” Netanyahu said, adding that Hodeida was also used to attack international shipping in the Red Sea.
Netanyahu also said the operation, which struck a target 1,800 kilometers from the Israeli border, showed enemy Israel was serious about addressing the threat.
“We have made it clear to our enemies that there is no place that the long arm of the State of Israel does not reach,” Netanyahu said.
The Israeli military said on Sunday that its air defense systems had subsequently intercepted the surface-to-surface missile as it approached from Yemen. “The missile did not enter Israeli territory,” the IDF said in a statement, but alarms were sounded warning of possible falling debris.
Houthi rebels said in a statement on Sunday that they had fired “numerous ballistic missiles” at Israel, adding that the salvos “successfully achieved their objective.”
The group said it carried out the operation against “high-value targets” in the area of the Israeli city of Umm al-Rashrash, also known as Eilat, on the Red Sea coast of the Gulf of Aqaba.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a U.N. statement that he was “deeply concerned” by reports of the attack.
“Retaliation for Israeli aggression against our country will come inevitably. It will be large and spectacular,” the Houthi rebels warned in a statement, adding that they would continue operations against Israeli, American and British ships until Israel ends its “siege” of Gaza.
“The Secretary-General calls on all parties involved to avoid attacks that could harm civilians and damage civilian infrastructure,” the statement said.
IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said the attack was also in retaliation for some 200 projectiles fired by rebels at Israel since October, when Israel and Hamas began their war in the Gaza Strip.
Since the war began, Yemeni rebels have regularly attacked the country with drones and missiles, most of which have been intercepted by Israeli and allied defenses, but the Houthis claim that Friday’s drone attack in Tel Aviv, which injured 10 people, was the result of a new type of drone capable of “bypassing enemy interception systems.”
The Houthis also regularly attack U.S. sites and merchant ships in the Red Sea.
Both the UK and the US responded to the attacks on the ships by carrying out strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen, but Israel has not joined in those responses.
An Israeli defense official told CNN that this was a 100 percent Israeli attack. He said Israel had previously let the US and Britain take the lead in responding to Houthi attacks, but this time, after an Israeli citizen was killed in Tel Aviv, it decided to respond itself.
Officials said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant notified U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin before the attack took place.
Defense officials 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 “developments” in the Middle East. A White House National Security Council spokesman said the US was not coordinating with Israel over the airstrikes, but added that the US fully recognised “Israel’s right to self-defence”.
The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, which means “Supporters of God” in Arabic, are an Iran-backed Shiite Islamist political and military organisation that emerged in the 1990s.
The Houthis’ official slogan, similar to that used by Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Iranian proxy, is “God is greatest. Death to America. Death to Israel. Curse the Jews. Victory to Islam.”
In 2014, the Houthis, allied with Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, from the UN-recognized Yemeni government, sparking a civil war that has plagued the country ever since.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have led a military coalition against Houthi forces in Yemen.
More recently, the group has come to be seen as a champion of the Palestinian cause, defending Gaza’s residents from Israel in Sunni Muslim-majority parts of the world and beyond.
Houthi rebels have carried out numerous missile and drone attacks since October 7 on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that they claim are linked to Israel and its allies, raising tensions across the Middle East.
Hezbollah has stepped up attacks across the border with Israel in recent weeks after months of low-intensity fighting, and the Israeli military has warned it is prepared to launch a major offensive on Hezbollah’s northern border.
After the Hodeida attack, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir congratulated Netanyahu on the operation and said “Israel should adopt a similar policy towards Lebanon’s Hezbollah.”
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Gallant echoed Ben Gvir’s sentiments, with Smotrich saying Israel must continue to strike “with all its might, even in far-flung places,” and Gallant saying “there is a price in the blood of Israeli citizens” and that “the result will be the same” no matter where Israelis are attacked.
“The fires that are burning right now in Hodeidah are being seen across the Middle East and their importance is clear,” Gallant said.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah condemned the attacks on Yemen, saying “we stand firmly with the Yemeni people in defense of themselves, their sovereignty and the heroic and historic position they take with Palestine.”
Hamas also condemned the attack, calling it a “dangerous escalation.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Katz called on the international community to “strengthen sanctions against Iran to the maximum extent possible.”
“Iran supports, trains and funds the Houthi terrorist group as part of a regional terrorist network aimed at attacking Israel,” he said.
“Iran is the head of the snake and it must be stopped now,” Katz added.
Iran condemned the Israeli attack on Hodeida, and Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Israel’s actions in Gaza were the “root” of rising tensions and warned of the risk of war in the region.
“The oppressed yet powerful people of Yemen are paying the price for their honorable support to Gaza’s innocent civilians, women and children,” Kanani said.
