In a televised statement on Thursday, the head of Houthi movement announced that there will be retaliation to Israeli bombings close to Hodeida in Yemen. A day after a Houthi drone bombed Tel Aviv, slaying a man, Israeli fighter planes struck Houthi oil and gasoline installations at Yemen’s port of Hodeida on Saturday, murdering more than 9 people and injuring 87 more.
Abdul Malik al-Houthi confirmed that there will be a reaction, soon. He said that the group will not be dissuaded by the Israeli bombings from continuing its operations against Israel in support of the Palestinians in Gaza. Al-Houthi also declared that “All things that comes from the Israeli will be more incentive for retaliation.
Following the drone attacks on Saturday, the Houthis are allegedly getting ready to attack strategic locations in Israel and the surrounding area. According to Yemeni military insiders, Houthi commanders have expanded their “target bank” with additional products.
Along with other members of the paramilitary groups in Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria, the Yemeni Houthi movement was reportedly planned to attack not just the Red Sea city of Eilat but also the Israeli Mediterranean ports of Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Haifa.
UN and Middle East Tensions
Following the recent events, Hans Grundberg United Nations Special Adviser to Yemen warned of a serious risk of a catastrophic regional escalation during a Security Council meeting on what was happening in Yemen on Tuesday.
Grundberg expressed his continuous concern about the deliberate harassment of international shipping in the Red Sea and its neighboring waterways. Current findings indicate that the scope and precision of the threat against global shipping are increasing. He described the Houthi attacks on Israel to be “a new and dangerous level” of violence, as did the Israeli retaliatory strikes on July 20 on Yemen’s port of Hodeida and its petroleum and electricity installations.
According to Hans Grundberg, the United States and Britain are still carrying out attacks on military targets in Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen. Additionally, civilians have been killed and commercial vessels have been sunk or damaged, hampering trade. Grundberg also declared that it is concerning that there are no indications of calming down, or even a compromise.
The Houthi movement claims that it has been attacking ships in support of the Palestinians, where Israel has been fighting Hamas since the terrorist group’s historic October 7 massacre, which claimed 1,200 lives, the majority of them citizens, and left 251 captives.
The Houthis in Yemen have so far been the target of revenge attacks by the US and Britain, but until Saturday’s attack on Hodeida, Israel had not specifically attacked the group since it started attacking in October.
