Israel sent dozens of fighter jets over Yemen the day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to answer a Houthi missile that came down near Ben Gurion Airport. The missile, fired on Sunday, wounded eight people. At least 12 airlines suspended flights.
The Israeli reprisal was the first direct military response to that launch. Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the Air Force hit more than 10 locations in Yemen and carried out 48 strikes, concentrating on Houthi concrete factories and the Red Sea port of Al Hudaydah. One Israeli official described the damage to the port as a “massive blow”. Reports cited by the network said about 30 warplanes took part in the bombing of the port city.
Port and concrete plant
Targets also included the Bajil district of Al Hudaydah Governorate. The Israeli military said its jets struck “targets belonging to the Houthi regime in the port of Al Hudaydah,” which it described as a central supply source for the group. It also named the Bajil Concrete Plant, east of the city, as a target. The army called the plant “a significant economic resource” used to build underground tunnels and infrastructure, and said the strike “further degrades the Houthi regime’s economic and military buildup capabilities.”
The military said the raids answered repeated Houthi attacks in which missiles and drones were launched toward Israeli territory and its civilians. Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the operation was code-named “Port City.”
An unnamed political source quoted by Maariv was more measured about the results. “The port of Al Hudaydah suffered significant damage from our strikes, but it cannot be said that it was destroyed.”
The Houthi account
The Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV channel counted six raids on the port, one on Bajil and further strikes on a concrete factory in the same area, which it attributed to the United States and Israel together. The channel said at least two people were killed and 42 wounded across the governorate.
Hashem Sharaf al-Din, a spokesman for the Houthi-run unrecognized government, promised “qualitative strikes” against Israel. “The Israeli enemy’s targeting of the port and a concrete factory in Yemen expands the list of targets for the Yemeni armed forces (Houthis),” his statement said. He did not say what form the retaliation would take or when it would come.
Background
Yemen has been under a heavier US military campaign since mid-March. The Houthis say it has brought around 1,300 air and naval strikes and hundreds of civilian casualties.
The group has been targeting ships in the Red and Arabian seas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden since November 2023, saying it acts in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. It stopped when a Gaza ceasefire was declared in January, then resumed after Israel renewed its airstrikes on Gaza in March.
