With Agency Reports
The Israeli Air Force struck the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida in western Yemen on Saturday, the military and local media said, a day after a drone launched by the Iran-backed group struck Tel Aviv, killing an Israeli man.
Three people were killed and 87 wounded in the strikes, said Al-Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthi terror organization.
In a statement, the Israeli military said: “Fighter jets struck military targets of the Houthi terror regime in the area of the Hodeida Port in Yemen, in response to the hundreds of attacks carried out against the State of Israel in recent months.”
It marked the first time the Israel Defense Forces has conducted strikes in Yemen. The attack was named by the military “Operation Outstretched Arm.”
The IAF strike on the port was aimed at preventing the Houthis from importing Iranian weapons, as well as causing the Iran-backed rebels financial damage.
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According to the Israeli military, the port in the Houthi-controlled city has been used repeatedly to bring in weapons from Iran, and therefore Israel saw it as a legitimate military target.
The airstrike targeted fuel depots, energy-related sites, and other facilities at the port. Images and video showed massive flames and smoke rising from the port.
Israel acted alone in the strike with no American military involvement. An Israeli military official said the United States had been updated ahead of the attack.
At least a dozen IAF aircraft, including F-35 stealth fighter jets, F-15 fighters, reconnaissance aircraft and refueling planes were involved in the attack — the latter of which was due to the target being some 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) from Israel.
Footage taken by beachgoers in the southernmost city of Eilat showed the Israeli aircraft making its way toward Yemen on Saturday afternoon.
“This is a complex attack, one of the farthest and longest carried out by the Israeli Air Force. It required careful planning and preparation for a variety of possible threats in the area,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a press conference.
Israel had threatened a response to the deadly drone attack on Tel Aviv early Friday, which killed Yevgeny Ferder, 50.
The Iranian-made drone launched by the Houthis was not intercepted by air defenses due to a “human error,” the military said.
On Saturday morning, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant held a meeting with senior military officials, during which the strike on the port of Hodeida was approved.
Later in the day, Israel’s security cabinet was convened to also approve the attack. The meeting lasted hours, and the ministers were still gathered when the strike was being carried out at around 6 p.m.
According to the IDF, Yemen’s Houthis in the past nine months have fired over 220 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones at Israel — mostly toward the southernmost city of Eilat — in solidarity with the Gaza Strip, where Israel is battling Hamas terrorists.
The vast majority of the Iran-backed group’s projectiles have been intercepted by US forces stationed in the Red Sea and Israeli air defenses and fighter jets, or missed their target. Before the attack on Tel Aviv on Friday, only one Houthi projectile, a cruise missile, had successfully struck Israel, hitting an open area near Eilat in March.
Until Saturday, Israel had not responded to the Houthi attacks. It had preferred that a United States-led coalition would continue to strike the Houthis in response to the Iran-backed group’s attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea.
The US-led coalition had not targeted the port, as it was seen as also being used to bring humanitarian aid into the war-torn country.
Still, Hagari said that Israel had no intention of harming the Yemeni people. “We are operating against the Houthi terror,” he said.
He also said that “Israel expects the countries of the world to stand on one front, this is a common international interest.”
The Houthi-run health ministry said that the strike caused casualties.
An official in the Iran-backed group said the attack would be met with “escalation.”
“The Zionist entity will pay the price for targeting civilian facilities, and we will meet escalation with escalation,” Houthi politburo member Mohammed al-Bukhaiti said in a post on social media.
The Israeli military said there was no change to instructions for Israeli civilians, although it was anticipating a response by the Houthis.
Gallant, following the attack, said it was a message to Israel’s enemies in the Middle East.
“The fire that is currently burning in Hodeida is seen across the Middle East and the significance is clear,” Gallant said in a video statement. “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.”
“The blood of Israeli citizens has a price. This has been made clear in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Yemen and in other places — if they will dare to attack us, the result will be identical,” he warned.
The Iran-backed Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014 and control large swaths of the country, are “part of the axis of resistance” against Israel along with Hamas — which is also sponsored by Tehran.
Houthi rebels have expressed support for the Palestinians and threatened Israel amid the Israel-Hamas war. The Iranian-backed group’s slogan is “Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse the Jews, Victory to Islam.”
In the Red Sea, the Houthis have fired on commercial and military ships dozens of times since November.
The Houthis say they are targeting ships over Israel’s offensive in Gaza against Hamas. But they have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for global trade between Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Other Iran-backed groups, in Iraq and Syria, have also claimed to have launched dozens of drones and cruise missiles at Israel during the ongoing war sparked by Hamas’s devastating October 7 terror onslaught, while Lebanon’s Hezbollah has attacked communities and IDF positions in northern Israel on a near-daily basis.
Iran itself also carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel in April with hundreds of drones and missiles, which were intercepted.
