The Israeli military said it was investigating locations in Yemen linked to the Iranian-backed Houthi militias in retaliation for a deadly drone attack on Tel Aviv on Friday.
The army said it struck “military targets” more than 1,000 miles away in Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah on Saturday in response to “hundreds of airstrikes,” including Friday’s attack that killed an Israeli man and wounded 10 others. It was the first time Israel has openly acknowledged attacking Yemen amid escalating attacks by the Houthis. The army also claimed it was one of the furthest strikes from Israeli territory ever carried out by the Israeli air force. Houthis spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Yemen had been the victim of “blatant Israeli aggression against Yemen.” He said the strikes targeted civilian infrastructure, oil tanks and an electricity substation in the strategic port city. “With the aim of doubling the suffering of the people and putting pressure on Yemen to stop supporting Gaza,” he added, writing that the strikes would only “increase the resolve” of the Yemeni people and armed forces. Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, wrote on X that “there will be impactful attacks.” Yahya Saree, a spokesman for the Houthi army, said “they will not hesitate to attack the vital targets of the Israeli enemy” in a statement carried by Yemeni media. The Health Ministry in Sanaa said 80 people were wounded, most with severe burns. Houthi-affiliated al Masirah TV later reported that the Israeli strikes had killed three people and wounded 87. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack was a direct response to the Houthis’ assault on Tel Aviv, which killed a 50-year-old Israeli citizen Yevgeny Ferder and injured ten others on Friday.
“It was used for military purposes, it was used as a gateway for deadly weapons supplied by Iran to the Houthis,” he said of the port.
“It makes it clear to our enemies that there is no place that the long arm of the State of Israel will not reach,” he continued.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the Houthis had attacked Israel “more than 200 times.” “The first time they injured an Israeli civilian, we hit them. And we will do this wherever it is necessary,” he added in a statement.
The drone strike by Houthi rebels killed one person in central Tel Aviv and wounded at least 10 others near the U.S. embassy early Friday morning. Nearly all projectiles fired from Yemen into Israel have been intercepted in the past. However, Israel said on Friday that although its air defenses detected the drone on Friday, no air raid sirens sounded and that an “error” had occurred.
Since January, British and American forces have struck targets in Yemen in response to Houthis attacks on commercial vessels that the rebels have described as retaliation for Israel’s actions in the Gaza war. However, many of the vessels targeted were not linked to Israel.
The joint airstrikes have so far done little to deter the Iranian-backed force. Also on Saturday, Israeli strikes killed at least 13 people in refugee camps in central Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, as ceasefire talks in Cairo appeared to be making progress. The dead in the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps included three children and one woman, according to Palestinian ambulance crews.
Israel launched its most ferocious bombardment ever on Gaza and a crippling siege of the tiny 42-km (26-mile) strip in retaliation for Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, in which the military group killed more than 1,000 people and took more than 250 hostages. Since then, Palestinian health officials say Israeli bombardments have killed more than 38,000 people, most of them women and children. The United Nations said crippling food shortages had led to famine.