Israel’s military bombed several sites across the Yemeni capital on Thursday, a day after Yemen’s Houthi militia launched a drone attack in Israel that injured 20 people.
The Israeli military said in a statement that dozens of air force jets had carried out a “wide wave of airstrikes” against “Houthi military targets” in Sana, the capital. It said that security and military intelligence facilities were among the targets.
“We have just delivered a powerful strike against many terrorist targets,” Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said in a statement. “As I promised yesterday — those who harm us will be struck sevenfold.”
Multiple heavy explosions rocked the densely-populated city of Sana at around the same time that a speech by the Houthi leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, was airing on television. Mr. al-Houthi did not address the Israeli strikes in his speech, and the health authorities of the Houthi-led government did not immediately comment on the number of casualties.
Israel and the Houthis — an Iran-backed militia that controls much of northern Yemen — have been trading attacks for months, but the fighting has escalated in recent weeks. After significantly weakening other Iranian-backed groups in the region, Israel’s military has turned its attention to the Houthis, carrying out a series of punishing strikes on Yemeni ports and other infrastructure.
In August, an Israeli attack in Sana killed senior members of the Houthi-led government — including prime minister, Ahmed al-Rahawi — but appeared to leave the group’s military leadership largely unscathed. Israeli strikes in Yemen have also killed and injured dozens of civilians in recent months, according to human rights groups.
Houthi attacks on Israel are typically blocked or intercepted by the Israeli military. But on Wednesday, a Houthi drone struck the Israeli city of Eilat and injured twenty people, two of them seriously, according to Israeli paramedics. The Israeli military said it had attempted to intercept the drone, which evaded Israeli air defenses.
The Houthis began attacking Israel as well as commercial ships in the Red Sea in 2023, after the war in Gaza began. Houthi officials say their attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli bombardment in Gaza, although Yemeni analysts say their motivations are complex. Hamas, the Palestinian armed group that led an attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which ignited the Gaza war, is also backed by Iran.
Shuaib Almosawa contributed reporting from Sana, Yemen and Natan Odenheimer from Tel Aviv.
Vivian Nereim is the lead reporter for The Times covering the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. She is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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