The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its fighter jets struck “military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime” in the area of Yemen’s Hodeidah Port on Saturday, in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was a direct response to the death of a 50-year-old Israeli in a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv on Friday.
This is the first time Israel has struck Yemen, according to Israeli officials.
The Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said the strikes targeted oil facilities in the port on Yemen’s west coast, killing at least three people and injuring 87, most of them with “severe burns.”
Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam said the strikes had also hit civilian targets and a power station. He slammed what he said was “brutal Israeli aggression” aimed at increasing the “suffering of the people of Yemen” and pressuring the group to stop its support of Gaza.
Houthi army spokesperson Yehya Saree vowed to respond to the strike, saying the Houthis would not hesitate to strike Israel’s “vital targets” and warning that Tel Aviv – a major city home to scores of diplomatic missions – was still not safe.
“We have prepared for a long war with this enemy until the aggression stops and the blockade on the Palestinian people is lifted,” Saree said.Israeli warplanes struck the Houthi-held western Yemeni city of Hodeidah on Saturday, apparently in retaliation for the Houthi drone strike on Tel Aviv earlier this week.
Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported that Israeli planes hit a power plant and a gasoline storage facility, killing and injuring several people.
Images circulating on social media showed a massive ball of fire and thick fog billowing from the targets.
Mohammed Abdul Sallam, the Houthi chief negotiator based in Muscat, said the airstrikes targeted “civilian” facilities to “pressure them to stop supporting Gaza,” vowing to continue attacks on ships and Israel itself until Israel ends its war in the enclave.
“We emphasize that this brutal aggression will only strengthen the determination and steadfastness of the Yemeni people and their valiant armed forces in their support for Gaza,” he said in a post on X.
Other Houthi officials vowed to retaliate. “We will respond more violently and harshly to this Zionist-American orgy,” Abdul Sallam Jahaf, a member of the Houthi Shura Council.
On Friday, the Houthis launched an explosive-laden drone into a Tel Aviv residential area, killing one person and injuring at least 10.
Critics of the militia argue the Houthis will use the bombings to legitimize their rule and crush dissidents in regions under their control.
“An Israeli airstrike is precisely what the #Houthis have long sought to legitimize their power consolidation. This event offers a pretext for increased repression of the population & violence in #Yemen and beyond. The Houthis excel at inviting conflict to sustain their authority,” Nadwa Al-Dawsari, a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. said on X.
