Israel shoots down a rocket fired from Yemen, hours after an Israeli attack on Houthi rebels

Smoke and flames are seen rising from a location in Hodeidah, Yemen, in this video footage Saturday, July 20, 2024. The Israeli military says it has struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a deadly drone strike by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the day before. (AP Photo)

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen early Sunday, hours after Israeli warplanes struck several Houthi targets in the Arabian Peninsula.

The Israeli airstrikes — which came in response to a deadly Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv — marked the first time Israel has reportedly responded to repeated Houthi attacks during the nine-month war against Hamas. The outbreak of violence between the distant foes threatened to open a new front as Israel battles a string of Iranian proxies in the region.

The Israeli military confirmed airstrikes on Saturday evening in the western Yemeni port city of Hodeidah, a Houthis stronghold.

The military said the strikes, carried out by US F-15 and F-35 fighter jets, were in response to hundreds of attacks by the Houthis.

Israel, along with the US, Britain and other Western allies with troops in the region, have intercepted nearly all of the Houthi missiles and drones. But early Friday, a Houthi drone breached Israeli air defenses and crashed in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial and cultural capital, killing one person.

The Israeli military said Saturday’s strike, some 1,700 kilometers (more than 1,000 miles) from Israel, was one of the most complicated and longest-range operations by its air force. It said it struck the port because the area is used to deliver Iranian weapons to Yemen.

The Health Ministry in Sanaa said 80 people were wounded in a preliminary toll from the attacks in Hodeidah, most with severe burns. The Israeli strike caused a huge fire in the city’s port.

“The fire that is now burning in Hodeidah can be seen all over the Middle East and its meaning is clear,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, vowing to carry out similar strikes “wherever necessary.”

The Houthis are among the Iran-backed groups that have attacked Israel in solidarity with Hamas since the Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian militant group, which sparked the ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza.

In addition to the fight against Hamas, the Israeli military is involved in daily clashes with the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. These clashes have raised concerns that the fighting could escalate into a full-fledged war with Lebanon and beyond.

The port of Hodeidah is also a gateway for supplies to Yemen, which has been in civil war since 2014, when the Houthis seized much of northern Yemen and forced the internationally recognized government to flee Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year to support government forces, and over time the conflict morphed into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The war has claimed more than 150,000 lives, both combatants and civilians, and has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam posted on X that the “blatant Israeli aggression” targeted fuel storage facilities and the province’s power plant. He said the attacks were aimed at “increasing people’s suffering and pressuring Yemen to stop supporting Gaza.”

Abdulsalam said the strikes will only make the Yemeni people and armed forces more determined to support Gaza. “There will be impactful strikes,” Mohamed Ali al-Houthi of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen wrote on X.

The Israeli military said the rocket fired on Sunday was intercepted before it reached Israeli territory.

Since January, U.S. and British forces have struck targets in Yemen in response to Houthis attacks on commercial vessels that the rebels have described as retaliation for Israel’s actions in the Gaza war. However, many of the vessels targeted were not linked to Israel.

Officials said Sunday that the Houthis had repeatedly attacked a Liberian-flagged container ship sailing through the Red Sea, the group’s latest attack on the vital maritime trade route.

The ship’s captain reported attacks by three small Houthi vessels, a Houthi unmanned aerial vehicle and rocket fire off the coast of Mocha, Yemen, resulting in “minor damage” to the ship, according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center. The Joint Maritime Information Center, a coalition overseen by the U.S. Navy, identified the ship as the Pumba and reported that “all crew on board were safe.”

On Sunday morning, the Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack on the Pumba.

Meanwhile, the US Central Command said on Saturday that its forces had destroyed a Houthi unmanned aircraft over the Rea Sea.

Analysts and Western intelligence agencies have long accused Iran of arming the Houthis, a claim Tehran denies. The joint airstrikes have so far done little to deter them.

The Houthis have long-range ballistic missiles, smaller cruise missiles and “suicide drones,” all of which are capable of reaching southern Israel, weapons experts say. The Houthis are open about their arsenal, regularly parading new missiles through the streets of Sanaa.

___

Wakin reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.