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.
The Ministry of Health in Sanaa said that 80 people were wounded in a preliminary toll of the strikes in Hodeidah,most of them with severe burns.
An Israeli Defence Forces official didn’t say how many sites were targeted,but told journalists 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.
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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 Yemen’s people and armed forces more determined to support Gaza. “There will be impactful strikes,” Mohamed Ali al-Houthi of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen wrote on X.