Israel attacks Houthi-held port – DW – 20.07.2024

At least 80 people were injured in Israeli air strikes on targets in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah, a Houthitied together The television station referred to the Ministry of Health.

According to Al-Masirah television, most of the injured suffered severe burns.

The broadcaster initially reported no deaths.

An AFP correspondent in Hodeida reported hearing several large explosions and seeing smoke over the port.

Al-Masirah showed images of injured people being treated in hospitals, many of them lying bandaged on stretchers in crowded rooms.

The broadcaster interviewed a man who said many of the injured were port workers.

Residents reported power outages and long queues formed in front of closed gas stations.

The Israeli military said it had deliberately attacked the military infrastructure of the Houthi rebels in Yemen during its air strikes on the war-torn country, DW correspondent Tania Krämer reported from Israel.

She spoke after Israeli fighter jets attacked the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Saturday.

“They (the Israeli military) described them (the targets) as military infrastructure, dual-use infrastructure and energy infrastructure,” Krämer added.

Israel apparently carried out the attacks in retaliation for a Houthi drone attack on the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Friday that killed one person.

The Iran-backed Houthis have not only attacked shipping in the Red Sea in recent months, but also attacked the southern Israeli city of Eilat with over 220 drones last month, Krämer said.

However, she said Friday’s Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv represented a “change in the equation” for Israel.

Krämer quoted Israeli government officials as saying: “The time for restraint is over.”

The Israeli military said dozens of rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Saturday, marking a new peak in hostilities with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it discovered around 45 missiles fired in three salvos from Lebanon. Some were intercepted, others fell in open areas, the military said.

The attacks came a day after Israeli missiles hit southern Lebanon, injuring several civilians.

Israel said Saturday’s attacks targeted the Golan Heights, where they caused fires and other damage to buildings. No one was injured.

The Israeli military told the EFE news agency that Hezbollah fired at least 80 rockets at Israel in at least 16 attacks on Friday.

Since the militant Palestinian Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, there have been almost daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel.

The United States said it disagreed with the “broadness” of an International Court of Justice ruling that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories was illegal.

“We have made it clear that Israel’s government program to support settlement construction is inconsistent with international law and hinders the cause of peace,” a U.S. State Department spokesman said in an email on Saturday.

“We are concerned, however, that the breadth of the court’s opinion will complicate efforts to resolve the conflict and bring about a much-needed just and lasting peace in which two states live side by side in peace and security,” the Foreign Ministry added.

On Friday, the UN’s highest court ruled that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories was illegal and called for its end and an immediate halt to settlement construction.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately condemned the non-binding opinion of a 15-member panel of judges.

Meanwhile, the European Union said on Saturday that the ruling was “broadly in line with EU positions” on the issue.

“In a world of constant and increasing violations of international law, it is our moral duty to consistently reaffirm our unwavering commitment to all ICJ decisions, regardless of the issue,” said the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell.

Media close to the Iran-backed Houthi militia reported that Israel launched heavy air strikes on the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah on Saturday.

The Houthi-owned al-Masirah television station said the attacks targeted oil storage facilities in the port and sparked fires and thick smoke. The attacks left people dead and injured, the station added.

The Israeli military confirmed that it had attacked “military targets of the Houthi terror regime.”

The attacks were apparently retaliation for a drone attack on Israel’s Tel Aviv, which the Houthis claimed responsibility for. Israel rarely confirms attacks on foreign soil.

A representative of the Houthi militias said the air strikes would be answered with an “escalation”.

“The Zionist entity will pay the price for the attacks on civilian facilities, and we will meet escalation with escalation,” Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi political bureau, said in a social media post.

The Houthis have been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea with drone strikes since Israel began its offensive in the Gaza Strip last October.

The Israeli military operation was launched following unprecedented attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on October 7.

Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, Germany and the European Union, among others.

Doctors in central Gaza have saved the unborn baby of a heavily pregnant woman killed in an Israeli attack, Palestinian media reported on Saturday.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that the child was born in an emergency operation at al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat.

Ola Adnan Harb al-Kurd, who was nine months pregnant, survived just long enough to reach hospital after her home in Nuseirat refugee camp was hit by an overnight bombing, paramedics said.

Unable to save the mother, who doctors said was in her twenties, doctors were able to detect the unborn baby’s heartbeat and performed an emergency caesarean section.

Al-Kurd was one of eight people killed in the Israeli attack, local media reported. Her husband was injured.

The still unnamed newborn is still being treated in hospital and is in a stable condition, WAFA reported.

A merchant ship was attacked twice by drones in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen on Saturday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said.

The incidents occurred 13 nautical miles southwest of Al Mukha in Yemen, but the ship and its crew were safe, UKMTO wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The post said a merchant ship reported that 12 small boats were approaching. The drones remained in an area around the ship for about an hour before disappearing.

The Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen have attacked shipping routes in the Middle East with drone and missile attacks in recent months, claiming this is a sign of solidarity with the Palestinians in the face of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

According to a count by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, at least 88 merchant ships have been attacked since November.

The damage caused included the sinking of two ships, the hijacking of another and the death of at least three crew members.

mm/ab (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)