Israel strikes Yemen port after Houthis claim drone attack in Tel Aviv

Israel carried out airstrikes Saturday on a port city in Yemen that is controlled by the Houthi militant group, sparking massive fires at a critical hub for imports to the impoverished country in an attack that Israeli leaders cast as a warning to emboldened adversaries around the Middle East.

The attack came a day after the Houthis, an Iranian-allied group, claimed responsibility for a rare drone attack on Tel Aviv that killed one person and struck just yards from a U.S. Embassy branch office. After the strikes Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they came in “direct response to the drone attack” Friday as well as other Houthi attacks against Israel during the war in Gaza.

The strikes made “it clear to our enemies that there is no place that the long arm of the State of Israel will not reach,” he said.

The Houthis, an Iranian-backed group, have been striking ships off Yemen’s coastlines for the better part of the year, in attacks they say are aimed at ending Israel’s Gaza offensive, while throttling vital trade routes. Over the past few months, the United States and Britain have carried out airstrikes against the Houthis, in an unsuccessful effort to end the maritime attacks.

Israel’s attack Saturday was also unlikely to deter the Houthis, Yemen analysts said, and might have the opposite effect, allowing the group to to consolidate its power at home as it rallied Yemenis to mobilize against another foreign threat. The strikes also heralded a further expansion of the war in Gaza, adding a volatile new dynamic to what has become a building regional conflict, joined by militant groups in Lebanon and Iraq as well.

A military spokesman for the Houthis said “several” Israel raids had struck the port, a power station and fuel tanks in Hodeida, a struggling city that serves as the entry point for imports to large parts of Yemen. He vowed the group would retaliate.

“We will respond to this blatant Israeli aggression and will not hesitate to strike the enemy’s vital targets,” Yahya Saree, the military spokesman, said in a televised statement. “We have prepared, with the help of God Almighty, for a long war with this enemy until the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people is lifted,” he said.

Footage of the aftermath of Saturday’s strikes showed black smoke billowing from massive fires in the port, and residents in Hodeida bathed in an orange glow as they watched. Al-Masirah, a Yemeni TV channel, quoted the ministry of health as saying that the strikes had injured more than 80 people, most with severe burns. The channel aired footage from what appeared to be a hospital, of injured people on gurneys lining a hallway.

The Houthi drone that struck Tel Aviv on Friday evaded Israel’s sophisticated air defense network and struck the city without even setting off air-raid sirens – a failure that Israeli officials blamed in part on “human error.” Weapons experts said it was possible that the Houthis had enhanced one of their existing drones to use in the attack by increasing its range.

An Israel Defense Forces official said Saturday that Israel carried out the strike on military and “dual use” targets following months of Houthi rocket and missile attacks on Red Sea shipping and Israeli territory. The official would not comment on reports of involvement by other national militaries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, the United States and Great Britain, although those allies were notified of the operation, the official said.

“The fire that is currently burning in Hodeida is seen across the Middle East and the significance is clear,” Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said in a statement. “The Houthis attacked us over 200 times. The first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them. And we will do this in any place where it may be required. The blood of Israeli citizens has a price.”

Netanyahu, in his remarks, said the Hodeida port was “used for military purposes, it was used as an entry point for deadly weapons supplied to the Houthis by Iran. They used this weapon to attack Israel, to attack the countries of the region, to attack an international shipping lane, one of the most important shipping lanes in the world,” he said.

It was also the entry point for fuel and food that entered Yemen, a country that has suffered gravely through a decade of civil war as people struggled to get basic necessities. The strikes Saturday could imperil those supplies, said Mohammed al-Basha, a senior Middle East analyst at Navanti, a risk-assessment group.

The strikes had resulted in “the complete destruction of oil tanks at Hodeida port, with extensive damage also reported at Hodeida power station,” he said in a message. The destruction, he added, was expected to “trigger severe fuel shortages across northern Yemen, significantly impacting essential services such as hospital diesel generators. The situation is likely to be exacerbated by the intense summer heat, intensifying the suffering of the local population.”

While ships docked in the port and grain silos in the area were not believed to be affected by the strikes, there had been damage to refined oil tanks belonging to the Yemen Petroleum Company, he said. There were also concerns that “poorly equipped firefighters” would not be able to quickly put out the roaring blaze in the port.

The attack has “sparked panic in Houthi-controlled areas, with residents rushing to gas stations in fear of an impending fuel crisis,” he said. To calm the public, the Houthi-controlled Yemen Petroleum Company was forced to issue a statement saying there were adequate fuel supplies.

A 34-year old Yemeni man whose family has a house in Hodeida, near the port, said the home was damaged by the fire caused by the strikes. The man, who lives outside of Yemen and asked to be identified by his first name, Hareth, said a relative had checked on the house Saturday. It was in one of the “poorest neighborhoods,” he said, where people’s houses were made of wood in the “traditional style.” The area had been targeted previously, during Yemen’s civil war, but had survived.

“This time, everything was burned,” he said.