Israel launches strikes on two Yemen ports
Israel says it has launched strikes on the Yemeni ports of Hodeidah and as-Salif in response to the Houthi rebels firing missiles towards Israel, days after the Yemeni group agreed a truce with the United States.
The Israeli military said it carried out strikes on 'terrorist infrastructure' on Friday, saying on X that the two ports had been used by the Houthi rebel group to 'transfer weapons'.
Al Masirah TV, a Houthi-affiliated outlet, also reported Israeli strikes on the two ports. The extent of any damage was not clear, and there no immediate reports of casualties.
The Houthis have carried out a campaign of attacks against Israel in self-proclaimed solidarity with Palestinians after Israel launched its assault on Gaza in October 2023.
Israel has carried out strikes in response, including one on May 6 that damaged Yemen's main airport in Sanaa and killed several people.Friday's attacks were the first since US President Donald Trump agreed to a ceasefire deal with the Houthis earlier this month, with the US halting its attacks on Yemen and the group agreeing to end its attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
Israel was not included in that agreement, and its military said it intercepted several missiles fired from Yemen towards Israeli airspace this week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that the attacks are 'just the beginning', describing the Houthis as 'just a tool', alleging that Iran was 'behind them'.
'We will not stand idly by and allow the Houthis to harm us. We will strike them with greater force, including at their leadership and all the infrastructure that enables them to attack us,' he said in a statement posted on the government's social media account.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz pledged to 'hunt down and eliminate' Houthi leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi if the rebel group continued 'to fire missiles at the State of Israel'.
Alluding to recent Houthi attacks on Israel, Katz indicated leader al-Houthi would meet the same fate as Hamas commanders Mohammed Deif and Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon – all killed in Israeli attacks over the last year.
Al Jazeera's Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Jordan's capital Amman, said that since Israel broke a ceasefire agreement with Hamas back in March – killing almost 3,000 since then, according to Gaza's Health Ministry – the Houthis had launched 'at least 34 different projectiles' towards Israel.
She said that Israel's policy 'moving forward' would be to strike back. 'For every missile that's fired, they're going to be conducting these types of air strikes,' she said.
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