Israel says airstrike at Yemen’s port will cut weapons reaching Houthi militia : NPR

Israel said Sunday it carried out a retaliatory airstrike on a key port in Yemen in an attempt to prevent the ongoing delivery of weapons to the Houthi militia by Iran.

The Israeli bombing raid on Saturday evening ignited huge fires at oil and gas storage tanks in Yemen’s port of Hodeidah, on the country’s Red Sea coast. Israel also targeted an electrical station and cranes that load and unload cargo at the port, according to officials in Israel and Yemen.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Hodeidah port was the “entry point for weapons that are supplied by Iran to its Houthi terrorist proxies. ‏The Houthis have used those weapons to attack Israel, to attack Arab states in the region, to attack many others.”

The Israeli strike came a day after the Houthis hit Israel on Friday morning with a large drone, killing one man in an apartment building near the Tel Aviv beachfront.

Netanyahu described the Israeli operation in Yemen as a “direct response” to the drone attack in Tel Aviv.

The Hodeidah port is also critical for food and other civilian goods imported to the impoverished country. The full extent of the damage was not immediately clear, but the massive fires and billowing black smoke on the seafront suggested it was substantial.

Yemen’s Health Ministry said three people were killed and more than 80 injured, many with severe burns.

A Houthi spokesman on social media described the Israeli raid as an attack on civilian facilities. The spokesman said this would only “increase the determination of the Yemeni people” to support the Palestinians in what he termed “the most just cause on the face of the earth.”

Israel, meanwhile, said the Houthis fired a missile at southern Israel on Sunday morning, but air defenses shot it down before it reached Israeli air space.

A long-distance operation

To reach the Hodeidah port, Israeli planes traveled more than 1,000 miles. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari called it “one of the longest ever conducted by the Israeli air force.”

The Israeli media reported that the air force used American-made F-15 and F-35 fighter jets in the operation.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant after the Israeli raid, and the Pentagon issued a statement that “reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and Israel’s right to self-defense.”

Also in Washington, a National Security Council official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. was in ongoing contact with Israel, but did not coordinate or assist with the operation in Yemen.

Israel says the Houthis have fired more than 200 missiles and drones at Israel in recent months. Israeli air defenses and U.S. naval forces in the Red Sea have shot them down, in almost all cases before they reached Israeli air space.

The Houthis are also firing on commercial ships in the Red Sea, which the group describes as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians. The U.S. Navy and allied countries defend against the attacks in the crucial shipping lane used by large container ships traveling passing through the Suez Canal to and from countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.