Israel has intensified its campaign against Yemen’s Houthi movement, striking what it described as a military infrastructure site at the Red Sea port of Hodeidah on Tuesday. The attack marks the latest escalation in a confrontation that has increasingly drawn regional actors into the wider conflict triggered by the war in Gaza.
The Houthis, who control the most populous regions of Yemen including the capital Sana’a, have long been aligned with Iran and have declared their attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea as acts of solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli bombardment. Since late last year, they have targeted commercial vessels and attempted missile and drone strikes against Israel itself, most of which have been intercepted by Israeli or allied defences.
Tuesday’s assault came just hours after the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for the port, heightening fears of further escalation. According to Al Masirah TV, a broadcaster affiliated with the Houthis, 12 separate Israeli airstrikes pounded the docks in Hodeidah. The scale of the attack follows an earlier Israeli strike in August which killed several senior Houthi officials.
In a statement posted on X, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned: “The Houthi terrorist organisation will continue to suffer blows and will pay painful prices for any attempt to attack the State of Israel.”
The Israeli military further claimed that Hodeidah Port serves as a hub for weapons smuggled from Iran, allegedly facilitating Houthi operations against Israel and its allies.
For their part, the Houthis insisted that their air defence systems had repelled Israeli warplanes. “Our forces forced the hostile aircraft to retreat,” military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on Telegram, though no evidence was provided to substantiate the claim.
The latest strike highlights how the Red Sea has become a volatile flashpoint in the broader Middle East conflict. The Houthis’ attacks on shipping lanes threaten one of the world’s most vital maritime trade routes, while Israel’s retaliatory strikes risk drawing Yemen’s decade-long civil war further into the orbit of the Gaza conflict.
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