3 dead in Israeli retaliatory attack on Houthi stronghold in Yemen

At least three people were killed and 87 wounded in an attack by Israeli warplanes on the Houthi-controlled Yemeni port city of Hodeida on Saturday (July 20).

The attack was in retaliation for a deadly drone strike by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the day before.

The Israeli strikes appear to be the first on Yemeni soil since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October.

A number of “military targets” were hit in the western port city of Hodeidah, a Houthis stronghold, the Israeli military said, adding that the strike was “in response to hundreds of attacks carried out against the State of Israel in recent months.”

“The blood of Israeli citizens has a price,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Gallant said the attacks were a warning to other Iranian-backed militant groups that have claimed attacks on Israel during the war in Gaza.

Open Israeli aggression: Houthis spokesman

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam confirmed the attack. He wrote on X that Yemen was the victim of “blatant Israeli aggression” that targeted fuel storage facilities and the province’s power plant. He said the attacks were aimed at “increasing people’s suffering and pressuring Yemen to stop supporting Gaza.”

Abdulsalam said the attacks will only make the Yemeni people and their forces more determined to support Gaza. Mohamed Ali al-Houthi of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council wrote on X that “there will be impactful attacks.”

A media outlet controlled by Houthi rebels in Yemen, Al-Masirah TV, said the attacks on oil and diesel storage facilities at the port and on the local electricity company had killed and injured several people, with several people suffering severe burns. It said there was a large fire at the port and widespread power outages.

Houthi attack

One person was killed and at least 10 others were injured near the US embassy in a drone attack by Houthi rebels in central Tel Aviv on Friday morning.

Nearly all projectiles fired from the southern Arab country toward Israel have been intercepted so far. Israel said its air defenses detected the drone on Friday but that there had been an “error” and that there was “no interception.”

Since January, US and British forces have struck targets in Yemen in response to Houthis attacks on commercial vessels that the rebels have described as retaliation for Israel’s actions in the Gaza war. However, many of the vessels targeted have no links to Israel.

The joint airstrikes have so far done little to deter Iranian-backed forces.

Iran’s support

Analysts and Western intelligence agencies have long accused Iran of arming the Houthis, a claim Tehran denies. In recent years, U.S. naval forces have intercepted a number of ships loaded with guns, rocket-propelled grenades and missile components en route from Iran to Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen.

Also on Saturday, at least 13 people were killed in three Israeli airstrikes on refugee camps in central Gaza, Palestinian health officials said. Ceasefire talks in Cairo appeared to be making progress.

Among the dead in the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps were three children and one woman, according to Palestinian ambulance crews who took the bodies to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital.

War between Israel and Hamas

The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, has killed more than 38,900 people, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has created a humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian coastal region, displacing most of its 2.3 million residents and causing widespread hunger.

Hamas’ October attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and militants took about 250 hostages. About 120 people remain captive, about a third of them dead, Israeli authorities said.

The war between Israel and Hamas has left thousands of women and children dead, health officials in the Gaza Strip say. In April, a premature Palestinian baby was rescued from her dead mother’s womb but died days later.

(With input from agencies)