JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen early Sunday, hours after Israeli warplanes struck several Houthi targets in the Arabian peninsula country.
The Israeli airstrikes — in response to a deadly Houthi drone strike on Tel Aviv — were the first time Israel is known to have responded to repeated Houthi attacks throughout its nine-month war against Hamas. The burst of violence between the distant enemies has threatened to open a new front as Israel battles a series of Iranian proxies across the region.
The Israeli army late Saturday confirmed the airstrikes in the western Yemeni port city of Hodeidah, a Houthi stronghold.
It said the strikes, carried out by U.S.-made F-15 and F-35 warplanes, were a response to hundreds of Houthi attacks.
Israel, along with the U.S., Britain and other Western allies with forces in the region, have intercepted almost all of the Houthi missiles and drones. But early Friday, a Houthi drone penetrated Israel’s air defenses and crashed into Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial and cultural capital, killing one person.
The Israeli military said Saturday’s strike, some 1,700 kilometers (over 1,000 miles) from Israel, was among the most complicated and longest-distance operations by its air force. It said it hit the port because the area is used to deliver Iranian arms to Yemen.
The Ministry of Health in Sanaa said that 80 people were wounded in a preliminary toll of the strikes in Hodeidah, most of them with severe burns. The Israeli attack unleashed a massive fire in the city’s port.
“The fire that is burning now in Hodeidah, is seen across the Middle East and the significance is clear,” said Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant. He vowed to carry out similar strikes “in any place where it may be required.”
The Houthis are among several Iranian-backed groups to have attacked Israel in solidarity with Hamas since the Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian militant group triggered the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza.
In addition to fighting Hamas, the Israeli military has been engaged in daily clashes with the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. These clashes have raised concerns that the fighting could spill over into a full-blown war with Lebanon and beyond.
The Hodeidah port is also a gateway for supplies to enter Yemen, which has been engulfed in civil war since 2014, when the Houthis seized much of northern Yemen and forced the internationally recognized government to flee from Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year in support of government forces, and in time the conflict turned into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam posted on X that the “blatant Israeli aggression” targeted fuel storage facilities and the province’s power station. He said the attacks aim “to increase the suffering of the people and to pressure Yemen to stop supporting Gaza.”
Abdulsalam said the attacks will only make Yemen’s people and armed forces more determined to support Gaza. “There will be impactful strikes,” Mohamed Ali al-Houthi of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen wrote on X.
The Israeli military said the surface-to-surface missile fired Sunday was intercepted before reaching Israeli territory.
Since January, U.S. and U.K. forces have been striking targets in Yemen, in response to the Houthis’ attacks on commercial shipping that the rebels have described as retaliation for Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza. However, many of the ships targeted weren’t linked to Israel.
On Sunday, officials said the Houthis repeatedly targeted a Liberia-flagged container vessel transiting the Red Sea, the latest assault by the group on the crucial maritime trade route.
The captain of the ship reported attacks from three small Houthi vessels, an uncrewed Houthi aerial vehicle, and missile fire off the coast of Mocha, Yemen, resulting in “minor damage” to the ship, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The Joint Maritime Information Center, a coalition overseen by the U.S. Navy, identified the ship as the Pumba and reported “all crew on board safe.”
Early Sunday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack on the Pumba.
Meanwhile on Saturday, the U.S. Central Command said its forces destroyed one uncrewed Houthi aerial vehicle over the Rea Sea.
Analysts and Western intelligence services have long accused Iran of arming the Houthis, a claim Tehran denies. The joint force airstrikes so far have done little to deter them.
The Houthis have long-range ballistic missiles, smaller cruise missiles and “suicide drones,” all capable of reaching southern Israel, according to weapons experts. The Houthis are open about their arsenal, regularly parading new missiles through the streets of Sanaa.
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Wakin reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
