Sunday July 21, 2024
Three people were killed in the air raids against the port city which come a day after a drone attack by the Yemeni group killed one person in Tel Aviv.
Fire erupts after air strikes on the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah on July 20, 2024 [Handout/Ansarullah Media Centre via AFP]
The Israeli military has said it has conducted strikes against Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah in response to attacks by the Houthi group.
The Ministry of Health, which operates in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, said three people were killed and 87 wounded, many with severe burns as a result of the Israeli strikes.
The air raids on Saturday were carried out a day after the Houthis claimed responsibility for a drone attack that killed one person in Tel Aviv and injured 10 others.
Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV said the Israeli attack targeted oil storage facilities and a power plant in Hodeidah, igniting a fire. The news outlet cited health officials as saying the air raids resulted in casualties, including fatalities, without specifying a number.
But the Israeli military said it hit “military targets” in Yemen.
The Israeli air strikes are the first known direct attack by Israel against the Houthis since the start of the war on Gaza. The assault comes amid growing fears of escalating violence across the Middle East.
The Houthi Supreme Political Council promised to respond to Saturday’s attack. “This aggression will not pass without an effective response against the enemy,” it said in a statement.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdelsalam said the “brutal Israeli aggression against Yemen” aims to “pressure Yemen to stop supporting Gaza, which is a dream that will not come true”.
General Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesman, added later on Saturday that the group would not hesitate in attacking “vital targets” in Israel.
Hamas was quick to condemn the Israeli assault. “The occupation state will undoubtedly be burned by the fire ignited in Hodeidah today, and the mounting Zionist crimes will change the entire equation,” Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the Palestinian group’s political bureau, said in a statement.
Hezbollah voiced support for the Houthis and the Yemeni people after the attack, as well.
“We think that this stupid step by the Zionist enemy is a sign of a new, dangerous phase in the confrontation at the level of the entire region,” the Lebanese group said in a statement.
But Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant lauded the attack as a warning to Israel’s adversaries.
“The fire that is currently burning in Hodeidah is seen across the Middle East and the significance is clear,” Gallant said. “The Houthis attacked us over 200 times. The first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them. And we will do this in any place where it may be required.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the port struck by fighter jets was used as an entry point for the Houthis to receive Iranian weapons.
Netanyahu added that the strike, some 1,800 km (1,120 miles) from Israel’s borders, was a reminder to enemies that there is no place that Israel could not reach.
Yousef Mawry, a Yemeni journalist and political analyst, told Al Jazeera that he witnessed people in Sanaa rushing to get fuel after the attack amid fears of shortages, stressing that the Israeli strikes targeted “public facilities”.
He said the attack would place the burden on civilians, leaving them without “access to basic necessities”, including propane gas and fuel.
The Iran-allied Houthis, who present themselves as Yemen’s official armed forces, have been targeting shipping lanes in the Red Sea in a campaign that they say aims to pressure Israel to end its war on Gaza, which has killed more than 38,900 Palestinians.
The Yemeni group has also launched ballistic missiles and drones at Israel, most of which have been intercepted.
But early on Friday, an explosive-laden Houthi drone eluded Israeli air defences and struck a building in Tel Aviv in what was seen as a major security breach in Israel.
Israeli officials had promised to respond. Gallant promised in a message to the Houthis on Friday that Israel “will settle the score” with anyone who harms its security.
The United States and United Kingdom have been conducting air strikes in Yemen for months in response to the Houthis’ Red Sea assaults. But the military campaign has failed to stop the Yemeni group’s attacks.
Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said the latest developments will likely strain the Israeli military, which “is already stretched thin”, amid fears of an all-out regional war.
Salhut noted that Israeli reservists are operating in both the northern and southern parts of the country as Israel fights Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“If the air force is going to have to be additionally deployed to more parts of the Middle East like Yemen, it’s tough to say how exactly they’re going to manage that when they’re looking still to recruit more people for the army,” she said. “It’s a lot of pressure on the Israelis as yet another front has opened this morning.”