Houthi-held port in Yemen still burning two days after Israeli attack

Hodeidah, Yemen — Firefighters struggled to contain a massive fire at Yemen’s Hodeidah port on Monday, days after a deadly Israeli attack damaged oil storage facilities and vulnerable aid vessels in the port, which is located in the vast part of the country affected by the Iran-backed Houthi rebel movement.

An AFP correspondent in Hodeidah said heavy flames and black smoke rose into the sky for the third day in a row following Saturday’s attack.

Firefighters are making slow progress and the fire appears to be spreading in some parts of the port, the correspondent said, adding that there are fears that the fire could also reach food warehouses.

High-resolution satellite images from Maxar Technologies showed flames engulfing a badly damaged fuel storage area in the port of Hodeida.

An analysis of satellite images by the Dutch peace organization PAX showed at least 33 destroyed oil tankers, said Wim Zwijnenburg, the group’s project manager.

“We expect to find further damage as not all storage tanks are visible due to the heavy smoke from the fire and the burning fuel,” Zwijnenburg told AFP.

The fuel depot is operated by the Yemen Petroleum Company, which said late Sunday evening that the six people killed in the Israeli attack were its employees.

According to the Houthis, more than 80 other people were injured in the attack, many of them with severe burns.

A mourning ceremony for the victims of the attacks took place on Monday amid rising black smoke.

Their coffins were carried through the streets of Hodeida, flanked by crowds and led by a Houthi brass band.

Saturday’s attack was the first Israeli attack on the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula. It was carried out in response to a Drone launched by the Houthi in which Israeli air defenses were breached and one person was killed in Tel Aviv on Friday.

The Houthis are part of an informal Network of groups supported by Iranoften referred to as proxies, throughout the region. The Houthis have promised a “massive” response to the attacks and threatened to attack Tel Aviv again.

US and British forces have targeted the Houthi military infrastructure in Yemen in response to the group’s regular attacks on commercial and military vessels in the vital shipping lanes of the Red Sea.

The Houthis claim they are carrying out these attacks in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip amid a war between their ideological allies Hamas and Israeli forces.