Israeli airstrikes targeted Houthi rebels in Yemen a day after the Iran-backed group claimed a deadly attack on the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. <\/p>\n
The Israel Defense Forces said its fighter jets struck \u201cmilitary targets of the Houthi terrorist regime\u201d in the area of Yemen\u2019s Hodeidah Port, with spokesperson Daniel Haggari saying the strikes were in response to both the death of a 50-year-old Israeli in the attack on Tel Aviv and the roughly 200 projectiles the rebel group has fired towards Israel since October. <\/p>\n
The Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said the Israeli strikes targeted oil facilities in the port on Yemen\u2019s west coast, adding that there had been deaths and injuries. <\/p>\n
Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam said the strikes had also hit civilian targets and a power station. He slammed what he said was \u201cbrutal Israeli aggression\u201d aimed at increasing the \u201csuffering of the people of Yemen\u201d and pressuring it to stop its support of Gaza. <\/p>\n
The Houthi Supreme Political Council vowed to retaliate with \u201cmore impactful strikes on the enemy\u201d and reiterated its solidarity with the Palestinian people, according to Al Masirah TV. <\/p>\n
The Israeli strikes came a day after a Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv killed one man and injured at least 10 others. <\/p>\n
The Houthis said the drone attack on Tel Aviv was a response to Israel\u2019s war in Gaza, claiming the operation was performed by a new drone capable of \u201cbypassing the enemy\u2019s interception systems.\u201d <\/p>\n
Israeli officials said Hodeidah had been targeted because it was the main supply route of Iranian weapons to Yemen. A spokesperson for the IDF said the targets were dual use infrastructure that were also being used for terrorist activity. <\/p>\n
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said \u201cthe blood of Israeli citizens has a price,\u201d and that if Israelis are attacked, the \u201cresult will be identical\u201d to that in Lebanon and Gaza. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe fire that is currently burning in Hodeidah is seen across the Middle East and the significance is clear,\u201d Gallant said. \u201cThe first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them. And we will do this in any place where it may be required.\u201d <\/p>\n
Since the start of Israel\u2019s war with Hamas in Gaza, the Yemeni rebels have regularly targeted the country with drones and missiles, most of which have been intercepted by Israel\u2019s defenses. They have also regularly attacked US targets and commercial shipping in the Red Sea. <\/p>\n
Both the UK and the US have responded to the attacks on shipping by carrying out strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. However, this is the first time Israel has struck Yemen. <\/p>\n
According to the official, Gallant informed US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin before the strike was carried out. <\/p>\n
The defense official added that Israel was able to strike so quickly because it had been preparing for this scenario for months. <\/p>\n
Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz said Israel had \u201cdelivered a severe blow to the Iranian-backed terror organization in Yemen today\u201d and warned it would \u201cstrike anyone who strikes us.\u201d <\/p>\n
He also called on the international community to \u201cmaximize sanctions on Iran.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201c<\/strong>Iran supports, trains, and finances the Houthi terror organization as part of its regional network of terror organizations aimed at attacking Israel,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cIran is the head of the snake – it must be stopped now,\u201d Katz added. <\/p>\n A White House official said US President Joe Biden had been briefed on \u201cdevelopments\u201d 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 recognizes \u201cIsrael\u2019s right to self-defense.\u201d <\/p>\n In May, at least 16 people were killed and a further 35 wounded by US-UK airstrikes in Hodeidah targeting Houthi rebels. <\/p>\n This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/i> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Israeli airstrikes targeted Houthi rebels in Yemen a day after the Iran-backed group claimed a deadly attack on the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. The Israel Defense Forces said its fighter jets struck \u201cmilitary targets of the Houthi terrorist regime\u201d in the area of Yemen\u2019s Hodeidah Port, with spokesperson Daniel Haggari saying the strikes were <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}