Sanaa: Israel attacked Yemen’s Red Sea ports in Hodeidah province on Tuesday morning, targeting facilities and docks, the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV and residents said.
No casualties were reported yet as the Houthi rebel group, which controls much of northern Yemen, rarely discloses its losses.
The strikes came hours after the Israeli army issued advanced warnings, urging residents in three ports of Hodeidah province — which includes the Hodeidah port city, the Ras Isa fuel port, and the As-Salif port — to leave before the Israeli military conducts strikes, according to Israeli official media.
The attack was aimed at stopping “the use of the port for military purposes,” the Israeli military said, adding the strike was a response to surface-to-surface missiles that Houthi forces have fired towards Israel.
The Israeli army said in its statement that navy missile ships carried out the strike, the first time its warships have been involved in attacks against the Houthi forces.
This was the latest in a series of Israeli military strikes targeting Houthi-controlled targets since the Houthis started launching missiles and drones against Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport and Israeli ports and ships in November 2023, to show its solidarity with Palestinians amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The group has said it would stop the attacks if Israel ends its military campaign and blockade of Gaza, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Israeli strikes last month destroyed much of Hodeidah’s ports and killed dozens of the ports’ workers, according to the Houthi television.
Earlier on June 5, Yemen’s Houthi group claimed responsibility for a “hypersonic ballistic missile” toward Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, which the Israeli military said was intercepted.
“The operation came in response to the (Israeli) crime of starvation and thirst in Gaza and the enemy’s aggression against the southern suburbs of Beirut,” Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea had said in a statement aired by al-Masirah TV.
“We will stand with Gaza until the aggression and blockade against Gaza stop,” he added.
The Israeli military said that its aerial defence systems intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.
Hodeidah has been the main entry point for food and other humanitarian aid for millions of Yemenis since the war began when the Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, in 2014.
The Houthis have been launching persistent missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
Between November 2023 and January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. The threat has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, through which $1 trillion of goods typically move annually.
(IANS)
