The Israeli military says its air force has carried out its “most powerful strike” in Yemen in response to the Houthi movement’s repeated drone and missile attacks on Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said dozens of its aircraft bombed targets belonging to the Houthis’ security and intelligence services, and military in the capital Sanaa.
The Houthi-run government’s health ministry denounced what it called Israel’s “brutal crime”, saying civilian facilities and residential buildings were hit and that eight people were killed.
It comes a day after 22 people were injured, two of them seriously, in a Houthi drone attack in the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat.
The Houthis have controlled much of north-western Yemen since they ousted the country’s internationally recognised government from there 10 years ago, sparking a civil war.
They began attacking Israel and international shipping in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden shortly after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October 2023, saying they were acting in support of the Palestinians.
Israel has carried out many rounds of air strikes in Yemen in retaliation for the hundreds of missiles and drones that have been launched at the country by the Houthis.
Videos from Sanaa showed large plumes of black smoke rising from at least three locations in the city following the Israeli strikes on Thursday afternoon.
The attack took place moments before Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV began broadcasting a speech by the movement’s leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi.
Al-Masirah reported that the strikes targeted residential areas in the Maain and Sabaeen districts, as well as the Dhahban power station. It posted photographs showing several destroyed and damaged buildings.
Health ministry spokesman Dr Anees al-Asbahi accused the IDF of the “deliberate and systematic targeting of civilian, service, and residential facilities”, which he said was “a war crime in every sense of the word.
He reported that eight people were killed and 142 injured, and that civilians were among them. He added that first responders were still searching under rubble for casualties.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that his country had “delivered a powerful strike on numerous terror targets of the Houthi terror organisation in Sanaa”.
The IDF said in a statement that the targets included the Houthi military’s General Staff Command Headquarters, security and intelligence compounds, the Houthis’ “military public relations headquarters”, and military camps used to store weapons.
“The IDF will operate against the ongoing and repeated attacks of the Houthi terrorist regime against the State of Israel, will conduct additional offensive operations against the Houthi regime in the near future,” it added.
A separate statement from the Israeli military said an inquiry into Wednesday’s Houthi attack on Eilat had suggested that the drone launched from Yemen was “detected relatively late, and that warning sirens were activated in accordance with protocol.
“Interception attempts were made using the Iron Dome [air defence system], but were unsuccessful. The cause for that has been identified, and corrective measures were implemented.”
Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Israeli forces have intercepted more than 98% of the drones launched towards Israel by the Houthis, according to the IDF.
The Houthis’ military spokesman said the attack was a “response to the crimes of genocide and the dangerous escalation carried out by the Israeli enemy against our people in the Gaza Strip”.
On 10 September, four days after a Houthi drone attack on Eilat’s Ramon airport wounded one person, the Israeli military carried out a series of strikes in Sanaa and al-Jawf province that killed 35 people, according to the Houthi-run health ministry.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said last week that 31 journalists and media support workers were among those killed in Sanaa and that the incident constituted the deadliest single attack on the press worldwide in 16 years.
Yemen’s September 26 newspaper said all but one of them had worked in its office or the headquarters of the government’s Moral Guidance Directorate, which were both bombed.
The IDF said at the time that it had targeted the “Houthi Public Relations Department”.
