The official spokesperson for the Houthis, Nasruddin Amer, described the Israeli airstrike on the oil tanks and power facility at Hodeidah port as “a brutal act of aggression against Yemen aimed at worsening the suffering of its people and pressuring Yemen to halt its support for Gaza.”
The Israeli military announced that it carried out strikes on the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah in Yemen earlier on Saturday.
In a post on X, Amer dismissed the strike as an “unrealistic Israeli fantasy” and asserted that it would only strengthen the Yemeni people’s resolve and their support for Gaza.
He added, “The Yemeni people are prepared to confront any challenges in their fight for the oppressed Palestinian cause and the people of Gaza, whose struggle is the most just on earth.
A series of strikes targeted the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah on Saturday, hitting a fuel depot, according to Houthi-run media.
AFP’s correspondent in Hodeidah reported hearing several loud explosions as Al Masirah TV described the attacks as a “series of strikes” on “fuel storage facilities” at the port.
The health ministry, cited by the report, said the attack caused casualties but did not provide further details.
The Supreme Political Council of Yemen’s Houthi movement said on Saturday there would be an “effective response” to Israeli airstrikes on Hodeidah port.
Israeli strikes on Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah will be met with “escalation,” an official of the Houthi movement said, warning Israel will “pay the price.”
“The Zionist entity will pay the price for targeting civilian facilities, and we will meet escalation with escalation,” Houthi politburo member Mohammed al-Bukhaiti says in a post on social media.
Israeli bombing of Yemeni port a ‘message to Middle East’
The Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari claimed that Israeli fighter jets targeted “military targets” in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah. Those claims could not be independently verified.
Israeli jets struck “military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the Hodeidah port area in Yemen,” claimed Hagari citing the attacks as a response to the numerous assaults against Israel in recent months.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for possible war crimes committed in Gaza, stated that Israel has targeted the Houthis in Yemen to send a message to the Middle East.
“The fire currently burning in Hodeidah is visible across the Middle East, and its significance is clear,” Gallant said in a statement. “The Houthis have attacked us over 200 times. When they first harmed an Israeli citizen, we responded with a strike. We will continue to act wherever necessary.”
The strikes came a day after a Houthi drone attack killed a civilian in a Tel Aviv apartment building.
Following the strike, which the Houthis say was done in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, the military spokesperson for the Yemeni group said that “the Yemeni Armed Forces declare the occupied Jaffa [Tel Aviv] region an unsafe area and will be a primary target within the range of our weapons. and will focus on targeting the Zionist enemy’s internal front and reaching the depths.”
Eight people were also wounded in the drone explosion, which appeared to evade Israel’s air defences.
Al-Masirah TV initially said that US and British forces carried out the strikes but later deleted the reference to them.
US President Joe Biden was briefed on the latest developments in the Middle East, according to a White House official.
The White House also clarified that the US did not participate in or coordinate any Israeli strikes in Yemen