The Israel Air Force on Monday struck the Yemen-based, Iran-backed Houthi terrorists at the central port of Hodeidah in retaliation for recent ballistic missile attacks against Israel.
The last time the IDF responded to almost daily Houthi missile attacks on Israel was on July 7, with that attack having little impact on ending the assault from Yemen.
Midafternoon on Monday, the IDF said that it shot down a drone that arrived from the east, which is usually a veiled reference to the Houthis.
Based on the slow speed at which drones move and the time of day that the drone was shot down, it is possible that the Houthis launched the drone even before the Israeli attack on Hodeidah, though it could also be their latest response. The IDF had not clarified this issue by press time.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said that “the rule for Yemen is the same as the rule for Tehran,” in reference to Israel’s pulverizing 12 days of bombing Iran between June 13 and June 24.
He implied that the attacks were against parts of the Hodeidah Port, which Israel had struck before and which the Houthis have started to try to rebuild.
Yet, despite Katz’s attempted analogy between Iran and Yemen, Israel has been more successful in its attacks on the Islamic Republic, whereby it invested massive intelligence and air force resources, compared to Yemen, where it has dropped a few dozen bombs periodically on a few key economic locations, but failed to kill top Houthi officials or disrupt their operations at a strategic level.
The IDF confirmed that among the targets struck were “engineering vehicles used to reestablish the port’s infrastructure, fuel containers, naval vessels used for military activities and force against the State of Israel, and vessels in the maritime zone adjacent to the port.”
Hodeidah Port has been used “to transfer weapons from the Iranian regime that the Houthi terrorists then use to execute terror attacks against the State of Israel and its allies,” the military said.
Hodeidah port used to transfer weapons from Iran to Houthi terrorists
“The IDF has identified the continuous efforts and actions of the Houthi terrorist regime to reestablish terrorist infrastructure at the port, and as such, the components used to advance these efforts were struck,” the army added.
“The Houthi terrorist regime exploits the maritime zone for the use of force and to carry out terrorist attacks against passing vessels and global maritime trade. The targets struck demonstrate how the Houthi terrorist regime utilizes civilian infrastructure for military and terrorist purposes,” it continued.
Throughout the current war, the Houthis are the only group that have managed to keep up relatively consistent missile fire on Israel, with Jerusalem striking back, but not sufficiently to end the fire.
In addition, the Houthis virtually never hit anything, with the only Israeli they killed taking place back in July 2024 when a single Houthi drone snuck through Israeli air defenses into Tel Aviv.
The only time the Houthis stopped firing completely was during the January to March ceasefire with Hamas.
Houthi missiles were launched toward Israel on Friday and Saturday, triggering sirens across Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and other parts of central Israel, as well as in the Dead Sea area on Wednesday.