Israeli airstrikes hit Houthi targets in Yemen after Tel Aviv attack
5:13 PM EDT, July 20, 2024
Israeli planes bombed Houthi military targets in the Al-Hudaydah port area in Yemen on Saturday. A massive fire broke out as a result of the explosion. "The fire that is currently burning in Hodeidah is seen across the Middle East and the significance is clear," said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
"Fighter jets struck military targets of the Houthi terror regime in the area of the Al Hudaydah Port in Yemen, in response to the hundreds of attacks carried out against the State of Israel in recent months," confirmed the Israel Defense Forces after 12 PM Eastern Time.
On Friday, in an attack allegedly carried out by the Houthis, a drone killed one person in central Tel Aviv and injured at least 10 others.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense reported that Defense Minister Yoav Gallant led discussions on Saturday morning about approving operational plans for strikes in Yemen.
"The fire that is now burning in Yemen is seen all over the Middle East, and it is understood that attacking Israel has a heavy price. The price that is paid in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and other places - is now being paid in Yemen. We are ready to act as necessary against any threat," stated Yoav Gallant in a statement on the X portal.
Local authorities report that there were fatalities as a result of the attack. There were power outages in several places in Al-Hudaydah.
According to Al Jazeera, Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdel Salam said that "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 brave armed forces," the portal quotes him as saying.
The Iran-backed Houthis are one of the parties in the nearly 10-year civil war in Yemen. They control the western part of the country, where half of its population lives. After the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip in the fall of 2023, the Houthis began shelling ships passing through the Red Sea, declaring that the attacks were acts of solidarity with Hamas and that their target was Israel and its trade exchanges.
