(Hodeidah) Israeli warplanes carried out strikes on Saturday on targets of the Houthi rebels in Hodeidah in Yemen, a day after a deadly drone attack on Tel Aviv carried out by these insurgents.
These are the first strikes announced by Israel against Yemen, a country at war where the Houthis, claiming to act in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, have for several months been carrying out attacks against ships presented as linked to Israel, in the Red Sea and in the Gulf of Aden.
“Recently, Israeli warplanes struck military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the Hodeidah port area in Yemen, in response to the hundreds of attacks carried out against the State of Israel” by these rebels in recent months, the army said in a statement.
Israel “will pay the price” for its strikes in Yemen, warned Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a member of the political bureau of the Houthis, who control large regions of Yemen including Hodeida (West).
In a statement on social media, a senior Houthi official, Mohammed Abdelsalam, denounced a “brutal aggression by Israel.”
According to him, the attack targeted “fuel storage facilities and a power plant” in Hodeidah “to put pressure on Yemen to stop supporting” the Palestinians.
“The enemy’s raids” left dead and wounded, the Houthi health ministry said in a statement carried by rebel-run media, without giving a specific toll.
Loud explosions were heard in the port city, where a huge fire broke out.
PHOTO RICARDO MORAES, REUTERS
A building was targeted by a Houthi drone in Tel Aviv on Friday.
The strikes came a day after a Houthi drone attack killed one person in Tel Aviv after evading Israel’s defense system, amid a war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas.
The Houthis, supported by Iran, have been carrying out attacks since November against merchant ships presented as linked to Israel.
The Houthis have threatened to make Tel Aviv a “primary target” for future attacks that will reach “deep” into Israeli territory.
The Israeli military said a “very large drone” capable of “traveling very long distances” was used in the attack that occurred before dawn on Friday.
The Houthis had warned last week that they “would not hesitate to expand their military operations” […] until the aggression stops.”
In recent months, rebels have claimed several attacks targeting the Israeli city of Eilat on the Red Sea, but the vast majority of the projectiles have been intercepted.
The attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, key shipping areas for global trade, have driven up insurance costs, prompting many shipping companies to sail via the southern tip of Africa, a much longer route.
In December, the United States, an ally of Israel, set up a multinational force to protect navigation in this strategic zone and, since January, with the help of London, has launched numerous strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.