Israel attacks Houthis in retaliation for Tel Aviv drone strike

Fighters pummel the port of Hodeida in Yemen on Saturday

Israel has launched an attack on Houthi targets in western Yemen in retaliation for a fatal drone attack on Tel Aviv on Friday.
Three people were killed and 87 were wounded in the air strikes, Houthi Al Masirah TV said.
It is believed this was the first Israeli strike on Yemen itself since the outbreak of the war against Hamas in October.
Israeli fighters pummelled the Houthi-controlled Yemeni port of Hodeida on Saturday.
António Guterres, UN secretary-general, appealed for “maximum restraint” in the region.
The attack struck fuel-storage facilities and a power plant in Hodeida as part of a campaign to dissuade the Houthis from supporting Hamas in the war in Gaza.
Smoke could be seen billowing out from the port and a reporter from the AFP news agency heard a series of loud explosions.
Footage broadcast by the Houthi-controlled TV station Al-Masirah showed a massive blaze on the seafront.
It also showed the injured lying on stretchers waiting to be treated at a city hospital; several reportedly suffered serious burns.
“The city is dark, people are on the streets, petrol stations are closed and seeing long queues,” said a Hodeida resident.
Mohammed Abdulsalam, a Houthi official, described the attack as “brutal Israeli aggression against Yemen”.
He wrote on X that the attacks were intended to “to increase the suffering of the people and to pressure Yemen to stop supporting Gaza”.
Threatening revenge, Mohamed Ali al-Houthi of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen wrote on X that “there will be impactful strikes”.
Israel had warned it would avenge Friday’s attack on Tel Aviv in which at least one person was killed and eight others hurt when the Houthi drone struck an apartment building near a United States embassy building in the city.
Yoav Gallant, Israeli defence minister, threatened retaliation in the immediate aftermath of the drone attack.
“The blood of Israeli citizens has a price,” he said, adding more operations against the Houthis would follow “if they dare to attack us”.
He added: “The fire in Yemen is seen across the Middle East.”
Although the Houthis have tried to attack other Israeli cities, including Ashdod, Haifa and Eilat, this was the first to have breached the country’s air defences.
The attack caught Israel by surprise with the Israeli defence system detecting the drone but not warning it was a threat.
It meant that no air-raid warning was given before the drone crashed into the apartment block.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, said the retaliatory attack was justified.
“The port we attacked is not an innocent port,” he said in a news briefing. “It was used for military purposes, it was used as an entry point for deadly weapons supplied to the Houthis by Iran.”
And in a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said it had struck “in response to the hundreds of attacks carried out against the state of Israel in recent months”.
Houthi attacks on Western shipping in the Red Sea have caused massive disruption.
Both the US and the UK have launched their own attacks on the Houthi rebels.
Last month, the US unleashed a barrage of missiles, destroying seven Houthi radar installations, one drone and two unmanned bomb-boats, which have recently become a weapon of choice for the rebels.
However, the US said it was not involved in Saturday’s Israeli operation.
“The United States was not involved in today’s strikes in Yemen, and we did not coordinate or assist Israel with the strikes,” a spokesman for the US National Security Council said.
“We’ve been in regular and ongoing contact with the Israelis following the strike in Tel Aviv that killed an Israeli civilian on Friday morning. We fully recognise and acknowledge Israel’s right to self-defence.”
In a separate operation, Israel launched an air strike on Adloun in southern Lebanon, 30 miles from the border.
It followed Hezbollah and its Palestinian ally Hamas firing rockets and explosive-laden drones at Israeli positions.
Lebanese media reported there had been civilian casualties, including a one-year-old boy who was reportedly in a critical condition.