BarcelonaA day after Houthi rebels attacked Tel-Aviv with a drone, which left one person dead, the Israeli army has bombed positions of this pro-Iranian group in Yemen. It is a response “to the hundreds of attacks committed against the state of Israel”, according to the army statement. In particular, the bombings have hit the oil installations in the port of Hodeida, in the Red Sea. Al-Masirah TV, controlled by the Houthis, says there have been deaths, but gives no further details. The Israeli military says this port is one of the main gateways for Iranian weapons to the Houthis.
“The Houthis use the port of Hodeida as a route for the entry of weapons from Iran into Yemen,” said the spokesman, who insisted that it was an Israeli attack, although the first information about it pointed to a coordinated attack by the United States and the United Kingdom. In the same sense, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has spoken, who has also assured in a video message that the attack is a reminder to its enemies that “there is no corner where Israel cannot reach”.
Netanyahu has also encouraged the international community, through a video message, to “support Israel’s fight against Iran and its metastases.” “Both in Yemen, as in Gaza, as in Lebanon… Everywhere,” said the Prime Minister. “Like Hamas and Hezbollah, the Houthis are part of Iran’s axis of evil,” Netanyahu insisted, asserting that this axis not only threatens Israel but “the peace of the entire world.”
According to the Israeli prime minister, this attack, the first in which Israel fires against positions in Yemen, is “a direct response to the drone attack” this Friday in Tel-Aviv, but also “to the aggression of the Houthis against the state of Israel since the beginning of the war.” The Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, has highlighted this. “The Houthis have attacked us more than two hundred times. The first time they injured an Israeli citizen, we hit them. And we will do it wherever necessary,” he said.
The Houthis did not wait and threatened to respond. “With the help of Almighty God, we will not hesitate to attack vital targets of the Israeli enemy,” said the Shiite group’s military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, who accused Tel Aviv of only attacking civilian targets, such as the central electricity that supplies Hodeida. Until now, the pro-Iranian group had attacked Western or Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Eilat area in southern Israel, but in recent weeks the Houthis have widened the scope of their attacks. operations and claimed to have launched attacks against at least eight ships in the Mediterranean Sea.
More hostilities with Lebanon
Israel also stepped up its attacks on the Gaza Strip today, especially in Gaza City and the Nuseirat refugee camp. The bombings in these two areas would have left at least 37 dead this Saturday, according to the enclave’s health authorities. The total number of dead in the Strip since hostilities began last October 7 is now close to 39,000 people.
In addition, also this Saturday, Hezbollah launched 45 missiles from Lebanon towards northern Israel, which did not cause any fatalities. It is the response of the pro-Iranian group, twinned with the Houthis, to the deaths of some of its militants during this week. A total of 330 Hezbollah members and 30 Israelis (18 military and 12 civilians) are estimated to have died in these clashes since 7 October.
Source: www.ara.cat
