Houthis vow ‘huge’ revenge for Israeli strike

Yemen’s Huthi rebels promised a ‘huge’ retaliation against Israel for a deadly strike on the port of Hodeida.

A raging fire at oil storage tanks a day after Israeli strikes on the port of Yemen's Houthi-held city of Hodeida. Picture: AFP

Yemen’s Huthi rebels promised a “huge” retaliation against Israel for a deadly strike on the port of Hodeida, as ­regional fallout widens from months of war in Gaza.

The Israeli strike, the first claimed by Israel in Yemen, set oil tanks ablaze at the vital port and came a day after the first fatal ­attack by the Huthis in Israel.

Israel said on Sunday that it ­intercepted a missile fired from Yemen and struck targets in southern Lebanon. Residents of southern Gaza reported combat in the Rafah area.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry warned Israel’s attack on ­Hodeida “aggravates the current tension in the region and halts the ongoing efforts to end the war in Gaza”.

Dozens have been killed since Saturday across Gaza, the civil ­defence agency in the Hamas-run territory said, including in strikes on homes in the central Nuseirat and Bureij areas and near southern Khan Younis.

Residents said a major operation was under way overnight on Sunday in a district west of Rafah, where they reported heavy artillery and clashes.

Debris litters a loading dock a day after Israeli strikes on Hodeida, Yemen. Picture: AFP

On Sunday, Abdul Malik al-Huthi, chief of the Iran-backed group, said the Hodeida strikes would lead to “further escalation and more attacks targeting Israel”. He said the deadly Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv on Friday had opened “a new phase” in operations.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the rebels’ ­“response to the Israeli aggression against our country is inevitably coming and will be huge”.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the fire left raging by the strikes on rebel-held Hodeida port “is seen across the Middle East and the significance is clear”.

Mr Gallant warned of further operations if the Houthis “dare to attack us” after the rebel strike hit Tel Aviv, at least 1800km from Yemen. It appeared to be the first to pierce Israel’s intricate air defences but an analyst said Houthi drones do not pose a “strategic threat” to Israel.

Six people were killed and 83 wounded in Hodeida, , health officials said.

Media images showed heavy flames and black smoke spiralling into the sky from burning oil tanks. Debris covered the dock where equipment was damaged.

Hodeida port is a vital entry point for fuel imports and international aid for rebel-held areas of Yemen, a country where the UN says more than half the population needs humanitarian help.

Analysts say the strike on ­Hodeida will likely only embolden the Houthis, who have ­already withstood since January repeated US and British strikes aimed at deterring recurrent Houthi attacks on shipping.

Relatives of an Israeli man killed in a Yemeni Houthi rebel drone attack on Tel Aviv follow undertakers to a cemetery in Rishon LeZion on Sunday. Picture: AFP

The rebels also endured thousands of air raids during nearly a decade of war against forces backing Yemen’s internationally-­recognised government.

In Lebanon, Iran-backed and Hamas-allied Hezbollah said it fired Katyusha rockets and drones at northern Israel after ­Israeli strikes hit a weapons depot and wounded six civilians.

Hezbollah, which reported three more of its fighters killed, said Israel’s strikes on its Yemeni allies marked “a new, dangerous phase”.

In the occupied West Bank, ­Israeli settlers on Sunday ­attacked a group of foreign volunteers helping Palestinian farmers, injuring some who needed hospital treatment.

Eight mainly American volunteers were working with the farmers in an olive grove near the Palestinian village of Qusra when settlers came after them, said David Hummel, an American-German in the group.

“We were standing there peacefully, not a threat to anyone, when they started coming ­towards us and pushing us down the path,” Mr Hummel said.

“They started attacking and beating us all with sticks and metal pipes and they were throwing rocks as well at us.”

Attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have increased since the Gaza war erupted on October 7. Tensions have been further fuelled by an International Court of Justice ruling on Friday that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967 was illegal.

The volunteers are from the International Solidarity Movement, a group that says it deploys people to form a “protective presence” for Palestinians at risk of facing violence in the West Bank.

Israeli troops arrived and fired warning shots in the air to chase away the volunteers and farmers, according to the mayor.

The army said that “a number of masked Israeli civilians assaulted a group of foreign citizens while they were planting trees in the area of Qusra” and that ­“several” needed treatment.

AFP