An Israeli airstrike caused a massive fire at an oil storage facility in Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodeidah on Saturday. Israel said the attack was in response to a drone attack by Houthi militia that killed an Israeli man in Tel Aviv on Friday.
AFP via Getty Images/AFP
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AFP via Getty Images/AFP
Israel said on Sunday it carried out a retaliatory air strike on a key port in Yemen aimed at stopping Iran from continuing to supply weapons to the Houthi militia.
An Israeli airstrike on Saturday night set off massive fires at oil and gas storage tanks at Yemen’s Hodeidah port on the country’s Red Sea coast. Israel also targeted a power station and cargo cranes at the port, according to officials in Israel and Yemen.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the port of Hodeidah was “a point of entry for weapons supplied by Iran to the Houthi terrorist forces. The Houthis used those weapons to attack Israel, attack Arab countries in the region and many other countries”.
The Israeli airstrike came a day after the Houthis attacked Israel on Friday morning with a large drone, killing a man in an apartment building near the Tel Aviv beach.
Netanyahu described Israel’s operation in Yemen as a “direct response” to the drone attack on Tel Aviv.
Hodeidah port is also vital for food and other civilian goods imported into the impoverished country. The full extent of the damage was not immediately clear, but large fires and black smoke rising from the coast suggested the damage was extensive.
Yemen’s health ministry said three people were killed and more than 80 injured, many with severe burns.
A Houthi spokesman on social media described the Israeli raid as an attack on civilian facilities. The spokesman said it would only “increase the resolve of the Yemeni people” to support the Palestinians in what he called “the most just cause on earth”.
Meanwhile, Israel said the Houthis fired a missile at southern Israel early Sunday, but air defenses shot it down before it entered Israeli airspace.
A long-distance operation
To reach the port of Hodeidah, the Israeli aircraft flew more than 1,000 miles. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari called it “one of the longest flights ever flown by the Israeli Air Force.”
Israeli media reported that the air force used US-made F-15 and F-35 fighter jets in the operation.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant after the Israeli raid, and the Pentagon issued a statement “reaffirming the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and its right to self-defense.”
Also in Washington, a National Security Council official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was still in contact with Israel, but was not coordinating or supporting operations in Yemen.
Israel says the Houthis have fired more than 200 missiles and drones at Israel in recent months. Israeli air defenses and US naval forces in the Red Sea have shot them down, in most cases before they reached Israeli airspace.
The Houthis are also firing on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, which the group describes as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians. The US Navy and allied countries are guarding against attacks on the vital shipping lane used by large container ships traveling through the Suez Canal to and from countries across Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
