Israeli military says it has struck several Houthi targets in Yemen in response to attacks

In this image from video, smoke and flames rise from a site in Hodeidah, Yemen, on Saturday, July 20, 2024. (AP Photo)

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza — The Israeli army said Saturday it has struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a fatal drone attack by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the previous day.

The Israeli strikes appeared to be the first on Yemeni soil since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, and they threatened to open a new front in the region as Israel battles proxies of Iran.

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

“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,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement.

An Israeli Defence Forces official didn't say how many sites were targeted, but told journalists that the port is the main entry point for Iranian weapons. The official didn't say whether other allied forces took part in the operation, and didn't confirm whether it was Israel’s first attack on Yemen.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam posted on X that Yemen was subjected to a “blatant Israeli aggression” that targeted fuel storage facilities and the province’s power station. He said the attacks aim “to increase the suffering of the people and to pressure Yemen to stop supporting Gaza.”

Abdulsalam said the attacks will only make the people of Yemen and its armed forces more determined to support Gaza. Mohamed Ali al-Houthi of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen wrote on X that "there will be impactful strikes.”

A media outlet controlled by Houthi rebels in Yemen, Al-Masirah TV, said that the strikes on storage facilities for oil and diesel at the port and on the local electricity company caused deaths and injuries, and several people suffered severe burns. It said there was a large fire at the port and power cuts were widespread.

Health officials in Yemen said the strikes killed a number of people and wounded others, but didn't elaborate.

The drone attack by Houthi rebels killed one person in the centre of Tel Aviv and wounded at least 10 others near the U.S. Embassy early Friday.

Virtually all projectiles fired from the southern Arabian country toward Israel have so far been intercepted. Israel said air defences detected the drone on Friday but an “error” occurred and “there was no interception.“ Because of the distance of about 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) from Israel, analysts and experts have expressed doubt about the Houthis’ ability to overwhelm Israel’s air defence system.

Since January, U.S. and U.K. forces have been striking targets in Yemen, in response to the Houthis' attacks on commercial shipping that the rebels have described as retaliation for Israel's actions in the war in Gaza. However, many of the ships targeted weren't linked to Israel.

The joint force airstrikes so far have done little to deter the Iran-backed force.

Analysts and Western intelligence services 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 packed with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and missile parts en route from Iran to Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

Deadly strikes inside Gaza

Also Saturday, at least 13 people were killed in three Israeli airstrikes that hit refugee camps in central Gaza overnight, according to Palestinian health officials, as ceasefire talks in Cairo appeared to make progress.

Among the dead in the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps were three children and one woman, according to Palestinian ambulance teams that transported the bodies to nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Associated Press journalists counted the 13 corpses.

Earlier, a medical team delivered a live baby from a Palestinian woman killed in an airstrike that hit her home in Nuseirat on Thursday. Ola al-Kurd, 25, was rushed by emergency workers to Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza in the hope of saving the unborn child. Hours later, doctors told the AP that a baby boy had been delivered.

The still-unnamed newborn is stable, but has suffered from a shortage of oxygen and has been placed in an incubator, Dr. Khalil Dajran said on Friday.

Al-Kurd's “husband and a relative survived yesterday’s strike, while everyone else died,” Majid al-Kurd, the deceased woman's cousin, told the AP on Saturday. "The baby is in good health based on what doctors said.”

The war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, has killed more than 38,900 people, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has created a humanitarian catastrophe in the coastal Palestinian territory, displaced most of its 2.3 million population and triggered widespread hunger.

Hamas’ attack in October killed 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and militants took about 250 hostage. About 120 remain in captivity, with about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.

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

Unrest in the West Bank

In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 20-year-old man was shot dead by Israeli forces late Friday. Commenting on the shooting, the Israeli army said its forces opened fire on a group of Palestinians hurling rocks at Israeli troops in the town of Beit Ummar.

A witness said that Ibrahim Zaqeq wasn't directly involved in the clashes and was standing nearby. Zaqeq "just looked at them, they shot him in the head,” Thare Abu Hashem said.

On Saturday, Hamas identified Zaqeq as one of its members.

Violence has surged in the territory since the war in Gaza began. At least 577 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since then, according to the Ramallah-based Health Ministry, which tracks Palestinian deaths.

In Cairo, international mediators, including the United States, are continuing to push Israel and Hamas toward a phased deal that would halt the fighting and free about 120 hostages in Gaza.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel that would release Israeli hostages captive by the group in Gaza is “inside the 10-yard line,” but added "we know that anything in the last 10 yards are the hardest.”

Fruitless stop-and-start negotiations between the warring sides have been underway since November’s one-week ceasefire, with both Hamas and Israel repeatedly accusing each other of scuppering the effort to reach a deal.

Wafaa Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Jack Jeffery reported from the West Bank city of Ramallah.

This story has been corrected to show that the first name of the U.S. secretary of state is Antony, not Anthony.