SANA’A, YEMEN — Israel hit the Houthi-controlled Hodeidah port in Yemen on Tuesday, following a public evacuation warning. This was an escalation of the current conflict. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed the strikes and said they hit “a military infrastructure site belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime.”
The IDF says that the Houthis use the Hodeidah port to “transfer weapons supplied by the Iranian regime in order to carry out attacks against the State of Israel and its allies.” The IDF said the strikes were in reaction to “repeated attacks” by the Houthis, which included launching drones and missiles at Israeli land.
Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah TV said that “12 Israeli enemy air strikes” damaged the port. Yahya Saree, a spokesman for the Yemeni military, said that the group’s air defenses were fighting “Israeli enemy aircraft launching an aggression against our country.”
Before the strikes, Israeli military spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee posted on X, telling people in the port city to leave. “Important Warning for Everyone at the Port of Hodeidah in Yemen…” Adraee stated, “The Defense Army will attack in the next few hours in the area shown on the map.” He also said that anyone who stayed would be “putting their life in danger.”
This most recent airstrike is one of many that Israel has been carrying out on targets in Yemen. The Houthi-run health ministry says that Israeli airstrikes on the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, and the Jawf region earlier this month killed 46 people and hurt more than 160. Reports say that those strikes were in reaction to a Houthi drone attack on an airport in southern Israel that hurt one person.
Before that, Israel’s attacks on August 30 murdered the Houthi prime minister and almost half of his cabinet, which made the crisis much worse. The Houthis have been attacking Israel with drones and missiles since late 2023. They say they are doing this to show support for the Palestinians and to oppose the war in Gaza.