CAIRO/JERUSALEM, Dec 20 — Israel launched strikes against ports and energy infrastructure in Houthi-held parts of Yemen yesterday and threatened more attacks against the Iran-aligned militant group, which has launched hundreds of missiles at Israel over the past year.
As Israeli jets were in the air, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile headed towards central Israel which destroyed a school building in Ramat Efal in the western part of Tel Aviv with what a military spokesperson described as falling shrapnel.
The Houthis — who have launched attacks on international shipping near Yemen since November 2023 in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's war with Hamas — said they had attacked Tel Aviv overnight, launching two ballistic missiles and hitting "precise military targets".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “After Hamas, Hezbollah and the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis are nearly the last remaining arm of Iran's axis of evil. They are learning and they will learn the hard way, that whoever harms Israel — pays a very heavy price for it".
Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah are also allies of Iran.
The Israeli attack, involving 14 fighter jets and other aircraft, came in two waves, with a first series of strikes on theports of Salif and Ras Issa and a second series hitting the capital Sanaa, military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters.
"We made extensive preparations for these operations with efforts to refine our intelligence and to optimize thestrikes," he said.
Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthis, said the airstrikes killed nine people, seven in Salif and two in the Ras Issa oil facility, both in the western province of Hodeidah.
Two sources at the port of Hodeidah told Reuters that an Israeli strike destroyed a tugboat, but the port has several others capable of towing ships to the dock.
In Sanaa, the strikes also targeted two central power stations south and north of the capital, Sanaa, which Al Masirah said had cut electricity to thousands of families.
An official from the Electricity Department in Sanaa told Reuters that airstrikes hit fuel depots at two power stations—one in Dhahban, north of the capital, and the other in Haiz, south of Sanaa. He said fires had been contained and electricity was expected to be restored within hours.
The Israeli attacks followed a strike on Monday by US aircraft against a command and control facility operated by the Houthis, which control much of Yemen.
The Houthis vowed to respond to the Israeli attacks.
"The Israeli attack will not deter Yemen from responding to this heinous aggression and supporting Gaza," the group's military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised speech.
— Reuters
