Israel attacks Houthis in Yemen after drone hits Tel Aviv

A day after a drone launched by the group struck Tel Aviv, Israel launched airstrikes on the Houthi-controlled port city of Hodeidah on the Red Sea in Yemen.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said his country wanted to send a message to the Houthi movement.

“The fire currently burning in Hodeidah is visible throughout the Middle East and its significance is clear,” he said.

News agencies linked to the Houthi reported that three people were killed and more than 80 injured in Saturday’s attacks. Houthi representative Mohammed Abdulsalam described the attacks as “brutal Israeli aggression against Yemen.”

On Sunday morning, the Israeli military said it had shot down a missile fired from Yemen before it entered Israeli airspace.

It was further stated that sirens had been activated in the Israeli port city of Eilat on the Red Sea “due to the possibility of falling shrapnel”.

Mr Abdulsalam said the Israeli attacks were aimed at pressuring the Houthis to stop supporting Palestinians in Gaza, but he believed that would not happen.

This is the first time that Israel has directly responded to what it says are hundreds of Yemeni drone and missile attacks on its territory in recent months.

Images from Hodeidah showed huge fires on Saturday evening. The Houthi-led government in Sanaa said Israel had attacked oil depots near the coast and a nearby power plant.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said: “After nine months of continuous airstrikes by the Houthis in Yemen against Israel, IAF (Israeli Air Force) fighter jets have carried out a full-scale operational attack on Houthis terrorist military targets at a distance of over 1,800 km (1,118 miles)” in the area of ​​the port of Hodeidah.

“The Israeli forces are capable of operating wherever necessary and will attack any force that poses a threat to the Israelis,” the statement said, adding that Saturday’s operation was codenamed “Outstretched Arm.”

Mr Gallant said the Israeli jets attacked the group because they were harming Israelis.

“The Houthis have attacked us over 200 times. The first time they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck. And we will do so wherever it may be necessary,” he said.

On Saturday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the attacks that his country would defend itself “by all means.”

“Anyone who harms us will pay a very high price for their aggression,” he said in a televised address, claiming the port was an entry point for Iranian weapons.

He also said it shows Israel’s enemies that there is no place it cannot reach.

On Friday, an apartment block in Tel Aviv was hit by a plane that an Israeli military official said was Iranian-made and modified for long-distance flights.

The Houthis said they carried out the attack and announced that they would carry out further attacks.

The attack killed a 50-year-old man who had recently moved to Israel from Belarus and injured eight others.

The Israeli military official said his defense forces spotted the incoming drone but did not attempt to shoot it down due to “human error.”

Previously, almost all Houthi rockets and drones fired at Israel had been intercepted, and none had been proven to have reached Tel Aviv.

The Houthi Supreme Political Council, the movement’s executive body, was quoted by Houthi media on Saturday evening as saying there would be an “effective response” to the airstrikes.

Although Israel has not yet attacked the Houthis in Yemen, the US and Britain have been conducting airstrikes against the group for months to prevent the Houthis from attacking commercial shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.

The Houthis initially said they were attacking ships linked to or leaving Israel. However, many of the ships have no connection to Israel and since the airstrikes began, the group has also attacked ships linked to Britain and the United States.