A handout picture obtained from Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah Media Center show a huge column of fire erupting following reported strikes in the Yemeni rebel-held port city of Hodeida, July 20, 2024 [AFP]
The air raids against the port city come a day after a drone attack by the Yemeni group killed one person in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli military has said it conducted strikes against Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah in response to attacks by the Houthi group.
The air strikes 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 injured 10 others.
The Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV said the Israeli attack targeted oil storage facilities and a power plant in Hodeidah, igniting a fire in the area. The news outlet quoted 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 Houthis spokesman Mohammed Abdel Salam said the “brutal Israeli aggression against Yemen” aims to “pressure Yemen to stop supporting Gaza, which is a dream that will not come true”.
He added that the attack “will only increase the determination of the Yemeni people and their valiant armed forces”.
Hamas was also 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.
But Israeli Defence Minister Yaov 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.”
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 vowed 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 against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon respectively.
“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”.
(AL JAZEERA)
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