The U.S. military said on Tuesday that it had carried out a series of strikes on the Houthis, the Iranian-backed group in Yemen, as the group suggested it would continue attacking Israel and ships in the Red Sea if there was no cease-fire in Gaza.
It was not immediately clear whether the strikes would be a setback for the Houthis, who have remained undeterred even as they have come under attack from the United States and Israel.
The Houthis have been launching missiles at Israel and attacking commercial vessels they claim are headed for Israel, along with military vessels, in solidarity with their ally, Hamas, in Gaza.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said on X that it had conducted “multiple precision strikes” on Houthi targets in Sana, Yemen’s capital, and coastal sites on Monday and Tuesday. It said the targets included a command and control facility and centers for weapons production and storage.
A video posted by the command, which directs U.S. military combat forces in the Middle East, showed F/A-18 Hornets and a F-35 Joint Strike Fighter carrying bombs under their wings, launching at night from an aircraft carrier. It also showed the daytime launch of two missiles from an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, which typically carries Tomahawk cruise missiles for strikes on targets ashore.
Mohammed Abdulsalam, a Houthi spokesman, condemned “American aggression on Yemen,” calling it a “blatant violation of an independent country’s sovereignty and blunt support for Israel.”
On Tuesday morning, Yahya Sarea, the military spokesman for the Houthis, said his group had conducted a drone and cruise missile attack on the United States aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman, preventing an aerial assault that American forces were preparing to execute.
The exchange of fire came soon after the Houthis launched their fifth missile attack on Israel in a week, despite increasingly strong warnings from Israeli officials.
The Houthis’ salvos have been intercepted and have caused little damage. But they have kept Israelis under threat from aerial attacks even after the Israeli military has destroyed most of Hamas’s rocket-launching capabilities and agreed to a cease-fire with Hezbollah, the militant group in Lebanon, which had fired thousands of rockets over the border into Israel.
Israel’s military said that the latest Houthi missile, fired around midnight Yemen time, was intercepted by the air force before entering Israeli territory. Still, warning sirens blared across central Israel, sending people running for cover.
Magen David Adom, the Israeli emergency rescue service, said it had treated a person who was hit by a car while hurrying to a shelter.
While the Israeli military referred to a single missile fired from Yemen, Mr. Sarea said the group had launched two missiles that hit their targets: the international airport near Tel Aviv and a power station in the Jerusalem area.
Israeli authorities did not report any damage to the airport or a power station. The mayor of Beit Shemesh, a town west of Jerusalem, told the Israeli news media that part of a missile had fallen there after it was intercepted.
Mr. Sarea vowed that the attacks would continue until “the stopping of the aggression on Gaza and the lifting of the siege on it.”
While indirect talks between Israel and Hamas appear to have made some progress in recent weeks, a breakthrough to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages held there has remained elusive.
Israel has responded to some of the Houthi attacks by striking infrastructure in Yemen that Israeli officials claim serves the group’s interests, including power stations, seaports and the international airport in the capital. Human rights groups have warned that the Israeli military’s strikes in Yemen could exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation in the country.
At a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Monday, Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, vowed that the Houthis would pay a heavy price for their attacks, as Hamas and Hezbollah have. Those two groups are also backed by Iran.
“Let this be your final warning,” he said. “This is a not a threat. It is a promise. You will share the same miserable fate.”
Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would deliver powerful blows to the Houthis.
“We are committed to removing this threat as we are doing on other fronts,” Mr. Netanyahu told Channel 14, a right-wing television station, referring to the Houthis. “The arms of the octopus are being cut off, one after another,” he added, referring to Iran.
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