Israel pounds Yemen, warns Houthis ‘we will reach you too’

Israel has pounded the Yemeni capital and ports, with Benjamin Netanyahu claiming the strikes were to protect ‘the entire world’ and threatening Houthis with the same fate as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Israeli air strikes destroy facilities in the Yemen capital of Sana'a. Picture: X.

The Israeli air force has bombarded the Yemeni capital and port cities after Houthi rebels fired a missile into central Israel, with Benjamin Netanyahu claiming the strikes were to protect “the entire world.”

The Iran-backed fighters, who control most of Yemen’s population centres, said they had fired “two specific and sensitive military targets … in the occupied Yaffa area”, referring to the Jaffa region near Tel Aviv, with “hypersonic ballistic missiles.”

The Israeli Defence Forces said they had intercepted a missile but its debris damaged a school just outside the city centre.

Within an hour, Israel launched a series of air strikes across Yemen’s western coast that Houthi media said struck power stations, oil facilities and a port in Hodaidah, killing nine people and injuring others.

A second wave of air strikes struck two power stations in the capital, Sanaa, which the Houthis have held for more than a decade.

BREAKING:

Israel is bombing Yemen’s capital of Sanaa.

Israel is now literally waging attacks on 4 different countries at once: Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine.

Yet Western media will still somehow frame Israel as the victim.
pic.twitter.com/zoU1Llv8Av

— sarah (@sahouraxo) December 19, 2024

This is the third time that Israel has launched direct strikes against the Houthis in Yemen since the outbreak of the war with Hamas in October last year, with the group having so far avoided the same intense military action that has targeted Hamas and Hezbollah, fellow members of Tehran’s so-called Axis of Resistance.

However the Israeli Prime Minister suggested the rebel group would soon face the same fate as its fellow Iranian proxies.

Noting the group is among the last Iranian proxies still active “after Hamas, Hezbollah and the Assad regime in Syria,” Mr Netanyahu warned the Houthis “are learning and they will learn the hard way that anyone who attacks Israel pays a very heavy price.”

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz added: “I warn the leaders of the Houthi terrorist organisation: Israel’s long arm will reach you too.”

IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari confirmed that among the targets hit in the “precise strikes” were “ports and energy infrastructure,” which he accused the Houthis of harnessing for “their military actions,” including missile and drone launches against Israel and attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Scenes from Haziz electrical station in Sanaa, #Yemen, which was targeted by Israel today. The station generated 36 MW & provided electricity to many in the city. Escalation is a game both Houthis & Israel appear willing to play, regardless of the cost to Yemeni lives. pic.twitter.com/JqJYx0z2lQ

— Fatima Alasrar (@YemeniFatima) December 19, 2024

Al-Masira, a media channel belonging to the Houthis, said a series of “aggressive raids” were launched in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeidah.

It reported raids that “targeted two central power plants” in and around Yemen’s capital Sanaa, while in Hodeidah it said “the enemy launched four aggressive raids targeting the port … and two raids targeting” an oil facility.

It said strikes on the Al-Saleef port had killed seven people, while two more were killed and other injured in the strike on the oil facility.

Thursday’s missile interception was the second this week, after a launch from Yemen was intercepted by Israel’s military on Monday.

That launch was also claimed by the Houthis, who said it was aimed at “a military target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of Yaffa”.

Also Monday, an Israeli navy missile boat intercepted a drone in the Mediterranean after it was launched from Yemen, the military said.

The Houthi rebels have said they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians and pledged Monday to continue operations “until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted”.

With AFP