3 killed, 87 injured as Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen after Tel Aviv drone attack

Tel Aviv: At least three people and 87 others were left injured after Israeli airstrikes targeted oil facilities in the port on Yemen’s west coast, media reports said.

The Israeli airstrikes on Saturday targeted Houthi rebels in Yemen, a day after the Iran-backed group claimed a deadly attack on the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, CNN reported.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its fighter jets struck “military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime” in the area of Yemen’s Hodeidah Port on Saturday in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was a direct response to the death of a 50-year-old Israeli in a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv on Friday.

This is the first time Israel has struck Yemen, according to Israeli officials.

Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam said the strikes had also hit civilian targets and a power station.

He slammed what he said was “brutal Israeli aggression” aimed at increasing the “suffering of the people of Yemen” and pressuring it to stop its support of Gaza, CNN reported.

Houthi army spokesperson Yehya Saree vowed to respond to the strike, saying the Houthis would not hesitate to strike Israel’s “vital targets” and warning that Tel Aviv was still not safe.

“We have prepared for a long war with this enemy until the aggression stops and the blockade on the Palestinian people is lifted,” Saree said.

Netanyahu said in a statement on Saturday that Hodeidah was “not an innocent port”.

“It was used for military purposes, it was used as an entry point for deadly weapons supplied to the Houthis by Iran,” Netanyahu said, adding that Hodeidah had also been used to attack international shipping in the Red Sea.

The Israeli Prime Minister also said the operation, which hit targets 1,800 km (1,118 miles) from Israel’s borders, shows the ‘enemy’ that Israel is serious about responding to threats.

“It makes it clear to our enemies that there is no place that the long arm of the state of Israel will not reach,” Netanyahu added.

IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the strikes were also in response to the 200 projectiles the rebel group had fired towards Israel since October 2023 when Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza began, CNN reported.

Since the start of the war, the Yemeni rebels have regularly targeted the country with drones and missiles, most of which have been intercepted by Israel’s defences or those of its allies. However, the Houthis claimed their drone attack in Tel Aviv on Friday — which also injured 10 people –- was performed by a new drone capable of “bypassing the enemy’s interception systems”.

The Houthis have also regularly attacked US targets and commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Both the UK and the US have responded to the attacks on shipping by carrying out strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. However, Israel has not taken part in those responses.

An Israeli Defence official told CNN that this was a 100 per cent Israeli strike.

The official said Israel had previously let the US and UK take the lead on responding to Houthi attacks but decided to respond itself this time because of the death of an Israeli citizen in Tel Aviv.

According to the official, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant informed US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin before the strike was carried out.

The Defence official added that Israel was able to strike so quickly because it had been preparing for this scenario for months.

A White House official said US President Joe Biden had been briefed on “developments” in the Middle East.

A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said the US had not coordinated with Israel on the airstrikes, but added that the US fully recognises “Israel’s right to self-defence”.

IANS