Israel strikes Houthi targets after Tel Aviv drone attack
Israeli aviation conducted airstrikes on Saturday on several military targets of the Houthi rebels, who control the western part of Yemen, the army reported. "IDF warplanes recently attacked military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the Hodeida port area in Yemen, in response to the hundreds of attacks against the State of Israel in recent months," the communiqué said.
Israeli aircraft attacked, among other targets, the port of Al-Hudaydah on the Red Sea. The airstrikes were in response to "hundreds of attacks against the State of Israel in recent months," the Israeli army communiqué emphasized.
"Israel's necessary and proportionate strikes were carried out in order to stop and repell the Houthi's terror attacks after 9 months of continuous aerial attacks toward Israeli territory," said Israeli Defence Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari in the communiqué.
The IDF spokesman emphasised that the targets of the strikes were infrastructure used for terrorist attacks on Israeli territory.
Houthi spokesman on "blatant aggression"
After Saturday’s attacks, a Houthi spokesman said that Yemen had become the victim of "blatant Israeli aggression", which had attacked fuel depots and a power plant, adding that the aim of these attacks was "to increase the suffering of the people and to pressure Yemen to stop supporting Gaza."
According to media controlled by the Houthis, the airstrikes were intense, and a large fire broke out in the attacked port, causing power outages. Local medical authorities reported "many deaths and casualties" but did not provide specifics - reported the AP agency.
The Iran-backed Houthis are one of the parties in the nearly 10-year-long civil war in Yemen. They control the western part of the country, where half of the population lives. After the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip in the autumn of 2023, the Houthis began shelling ships passing through the Red Sea, declaring that the attacks were an act of solidarity with Hamas and that their target was Israel and its trade exchange.
