Israeli jets have launched widespread air raids against Houthi targets in Yemen, killing at least nine people in the port city of Hodeidah.
According to Israeli media, dozens of combat jets along with fuelling and intelligence aircraft took part in the raids. There had been reports beforehand that Israel was planning to hit Yemen with force after a recent increase in Houthi attacks against Israel, including two in the past week.
The raids came after an overnight missile launch from Yemen towards Israel. The Israeli military said it was investigating whether an incomplete interception by its aerial defences had led to parts of the missile hitting a school in the area of Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv.
The airstrikes, the third time during the current war in the region that Israel has hit Yemen, came amid warnings that Israel intended to act after more than a year of intermittent drone and missile attacks from the Iranian-backed Houthis. Houthi forces have been regularly firing long-range missiles at Israel in what they said was solidarity for Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza.
Al-Masirah, a Houthi media channel, said a series of “aggressive raids” were launched in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a and Hodeidah.
The Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said the rebels had targeted “two specific and sensitive military targets” in the occupied Jaffa region near Tel Aviv, with “hypersonic ballistic missiles”, although the claim regarding the type of missile was unverified.
Israel’s military said it “conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen, including ports and energy infrastructure in Sana’a, which the Houthis have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military actions”.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a statement: “After Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis are almost the last remaining arm of Iran’s axis of evil. The Houthis are learning, and will learn the hard way, that those who strike Israel will pay a very heavy price for it.”
In comments released by the Israeli air force’s command centre, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said: “I warn the leaders of the Houthi terrorist organisation: Israel’s long arm will reach you too.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also issued a statement accusing the Houthis of “conducting attacks against Israel in contravention of international law”, adding that “the Houthi regime constitutes a threat to the region’s peace and security”.
After the Israel strikes, a Houthi official stated that the group would “respond to escalation with escalation”.
Muhammad al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi political bureau, said: “The American-Israeli bombings of civilian facilities in Yemen expose the hypocrisy of the west. Our military operations to support Gaza will continue, and we will respond to escalation with escalation until the crimes of mass extermination in Gaza stop and the possibility of bringing food, medicine and fuel into the strip is allowed.”
Iran condemned as a “flagrant violation” the Israeli strikes on ports and energy sites in Yemen, where it supports the Houthi rebel group.
The foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said the attacks were “a flagrant violation of the principles and norms of international law and the UN charter”.
