Israeli navy attacks rebel-held Yemeni port city of Hodeida, a first in the conflict

This is a locator map for Yemen with its capital, Sanaa. (AP Photo)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israel’s navy attacked docks in Yemen’s rebel-held port city of Hodeida on Tuesday, launching its first seaborne assault against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels while warning more could come.

The attack on Hodeida likely damaged facilities that are key to aid shipments to the hungry, war-wracked nation, but also have allegedly been used for weapons smuggling as vessels reportedly bypass United Nations inspectors.

Both Israel and the United States have struck ports in the area in the past — including an American attack that killed 74 people in April — but Israel is now acting alone in attacking the rebels as they continue to fire missiles at Israel over its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned his country’s “long arm in the air and at sea will reach everywhere.”

“We warned the Houthi terror organization that if they continue to fire at Israel they will face a powerful response and enter a naval and air blockade,” he said.

Israeli attack again targets the Hodeida port

The Israeli attack struck Hodeida, some 150 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on the Red Sea on Tuesday morning. The Houthis offered no immediate damage assessment and there were no videos immediately released by their al-Masirah satellite news channel.

“It has no effect even on the morale of our people, who take to the streets weekly ... in support of Gaza,” wrote Nasruddin Amer, the deputy head of the Houthis’ media office.

The Israeli military said missile boats carried out the attack. It marked a departure for Israel, which previously relied on airstrikes to target the Houthis. Hodeida is over 1,900 kilometers (1,180 miles) south of Israel’s southern tip, requiring the Israeli military to use aerial refueling to conduct those strikes.

Israel’s navy, with over 9,000 sailors, has been mainly deployed in the Mediterranean Sea since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel began the war.

“The strikes were carried out to stop the use of the port for military purposes,” the Israeli military said, without offering a damage assessment from the attack. “The port is used to transfer weapons and is a further example of the Houthi terrorist regime’s cynical exploitation of civilian infrastructure in order to advance terrorist activities.”

Already, Israel has destroyed all the aircraft used by Yemen’s state carrier, Yemenia, in strikes on Sanaa International Airport.

Hodeida is key for aid, but rumors of weapons smuggling are growing

Hodeida is the main entry point for food and other humanitarian aid for millions of Yemenis since the war began when the Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014. A Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s exiled government considered trying to retake Hodeida by force in 2018, but ultimately decided against it as international criticism and worries about the port being destroyed grew.

A United Nations mission operates in Hodeida, while another screens ships off Djibouti. However, those inspections appear to be no longer catching all vessels heading into Hodeida. A U.N. experts report last year wrote about receiving a tip about vessels reaching the Hodeida area to “unload significant quantities of military materiel.” The Houthis also are believed to use an overland route as well via the Gulf of Aden to smuggle in weapons.

Iran denies directly arming the Houthis, though United Nations experts, Western nations and analysts have linked weapons in the rebels’ arsenal back to Tehran.

The U.N. mission monitoring shipping into Yemen did not respond to a request for comment. Dorothy Shea, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in a speech in May that more money needed to go to the U.N. mission.

“Earlier this month, UNVIM successfully interdicted four shipping containers of illicit materials bound for Houthi-controlled ports,” she said, using an an acronym for the U.N. inspection mission. “This interdiction clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of this mechanism. We all need to continue supporting its operations.”

Houthis have launched sea attacks during war

The Houthis have been launching persistent missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

From November 2023 until January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The Houthis paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the U.S. launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March. President Donald Trump paused those attacks just before his trip to the Mideast, saying the rebels had “capitulated” to American demands.

Early Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on X that U.S. Navy ships had traveled through the Red Sea and its Bab el-Mandeb Strait “multiple times in recent days” without facing Houthi attacks.

“These transits occurred without challenge and demonstrate the success of both Operation ROUGH RIDER and the President’s Peace Through Strength agenda,” Hegseth wrote ahead of facing Congress for the first time since sharing sensitive military details of America’s military campaign against the Houthis in a Signal chat.

It’s unclear how the Houthis will respond now that an attack has come from the sea, rather than the air, from the Israelis.

Meanwhile, a wider, decadelong war in Yemen remains stalemated.

Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.