Israel targets Houthi with retaliatory strikes

SANAA, Yemen — The Israeli army said Saturday it has struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a fatal drone attack by the terrorist group in Tel Aviv the previous day.

The Israeli strikes appeared to be the first on Yemeni soil since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, and they threatened to open a new front in the region as Israel battles proxies of Iran.

A number of “military targets” were hit in the western port city of Hodeidah, a Houthi stronghold, the Israeli army said, adding that its attack was in response to “hundreds of attacks” against Israel in recent months.

“The Houthis attacked us over 200 times. The first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them. And we will do this in any place where it may be required,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement.

The Ministry of Health in Sanaa said that 80 people were wounded in a preliminary toll of the strikes in Hodeidah, most of them with severe burns.

Israel’s military said it alone carried out the strikes and “our friends were updated.” An Israel Defense Forces official didn’t say how many sites were targeted, but told journalists that the port is the main entry point for Iranian weapons. The official didn’t say whether it was Israel’s first attack on Yemen.

The drone attack by Houthi terrorists killed one person in the center of Tel Aviv and wounded at least 10 others near the U.S. Embassy early Friday.

Virtually all projectiles fired from the southern Arabian country toward Israel have been intercepted. Israel said air defenses detected the drone on Friday but an “error” occurred. Experts have expressed doubt about the Houthis’ ability to overwhelm Israel’s air defense system from about 1,000 miles away.

“The distance just makes it difficult to launch the kind of barrage that would be necessary to inflict major damage,” said Fabian Hinz, a missile expert and research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Since January, U.S. and U.K. forces have been striking targets in Yemen, in response to the Houthis’ attacks on commercial shipping. The airstrikes so far have done little to deter the Houthis.

Analysts and Western intelligence services have long accused Iran of arming the Houthis, a claim Tehran denies. In recent years, U.S. naval forces have intercepted a number of ships packed with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and missile parts en route from Iran to Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

The Houthis are open about their arsenal. They have long-range ballistic missiles, smaller cruise missiles and “suicide drones,” all capable of reaching southern Israel, according to weapons experts.

Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 20-year-old man was shot dead by Israeli forces late Friday. Commenting on the shooting, the Israeli army said its forces opened fire on a group of Palestinians hurling rocks at Israeli troops in the town of Beit Ummar.

Violence has surged in the territory since the war in Gaza began.

In Cairo, international mediators, including the United States, are continuing to push Israel and Hamas toward a phased deal that would halt the fighting and free about 120 hostages in Gaza.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel that would release Israeli hostages captive by the group in Gaza is “inside the 10-yard line,” but added “we know that anything in the last 10 yards are the hardest.”