"I have a message for Israel's enemies – don't be mistaken about us," Netanyahu said in a video statement released on the night of July 20. "We will protect ourselves in every way, on every front. Anyone who harms us will pay a heavy price for his aggression."
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its fighter jets struck "military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime" in the area of the Hodeidah Port on Saturday, which was used by the Houthis as an entry point for its weapons supplies. The Israeli prime minister said that it was a direct response to the death of a 50-year-old Israeli in a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv one day before the strike. This is the first time Israel has struck Yemen, according to Israeli officials.
"Israel's attack in Yemen makes it clear to our enemies that there is no place that the long arm of Israel will not reach," Netanyahu further said in the statement where he also lauded the IDF and the Israeli Air Force (IAF) for "a determined, precise and successful operation. It struck targets 1,700 kilometers from our borders."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening:
“From the beginning of the war, I made it clear that Israel will act against all those who attack us.
This is why earlier today, I asked the Israeli cabinet to back my decision to strike against the Houthi targets in Yemen. pic.twitter.com/xWE3KXQaeV
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) July 20, 2024
He also claimed that the port his troops attacked was not an innocent port. "It was used for military purposes; it was used as an entry point for deadly weapons supplied to the Houthis by Iran," he said.
Netanyahu also called on the international community to boost its measures against Iran and its allies: "Anyone who wishes to see a stable and safe Middle East needs to stand against 'Iran's axis of evil' and support Israel's fight against Iran and its proxies – in Yemen, in Gaza, in Lebanon, everywhere," he said.
The Houthi group has been attacking Israeli-linked merchant vessels in the region since October, to condemn the genocidal operations against Palestinians in Gaza. A U.S. and U.K.-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against the group but the effort appears to have yielded little result. Netanyahu still thanked the West and its other allies for their help in intercepting Houthi projectiles of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones against Israel for the past eight months. (Related: Houthi drone boats strike oil tankers in the Red Sea.)
"The Houthis attacked us over 200 times. The first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them. And we will do this anywhere where it may be required," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a separate statement on Saturday.
Israel's strikes on Yemen destroyed storage tanks with more than 150,000 tons of fuel, along with several cranes and piers, said Mohammed Albasha, a senior Yemen expert at the U.S.-based Navanti Group consulting firm. Days later, fires still rage from the port, where the majority of the country's 33 million people live. Though firefighters have yet to fully put out the flames in the port's fuel depot and power plant or clear debris from destroyed cranes, officials said Monday the port is already operational.
Houthis vow a "huge" response to the Israeli attack
Meanwhile, the Houthis have promised to avenge the Israeli raid with more "impactful strikes," Mohamed Ali al-Houthi of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Moreover, on Sunday, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the rebels' "response to the Israeli aggression against our country is inevitably coming and will be huge."
That same day of Israel's military strike in Yemen, Houthi's leader Abdul Malek Al-Houthi, gave a televised address in which he said he was "very happy" that the group was now engaged in a direct battle with Israel and the United States. "The Israeli aggression against our country will contribute to a greater escalation of our operations against it and to the development of our capabilities as well, and the enemy will lose and incur more dangers upon itself," he said.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah characterized Israel's strike as a "foolish step" that "heralds a new and dangerous phase of extremely important confrontation at the level of the entire region."
The expectation is that the Houthis, as well as their allies in other Iran-backed factions, will intensify their attacks both on Israel and in the Red Sea, utilizing more advanced Iranian-supplied weaponry than the group has possessed in the past, Albasha said.
"Historically, Iran didn't give the Houthis the newest technology. Now they are," he said. He pointed out that the drone used in the Tel Aviv attack, which the Houthis called Yafa (the Arabic name for Jaffa), was a modified version of the Houthi-manufactured Sammad 3 drone – but with a newer engine and possibly upgraded avionics.
Last week, the Houthis used kamikaze drone boats to attack two vessels in the Red Sea. Reports said the drone boats were an upgraded design of the Toofan, a drone boat with a 4,500-pound payload capable of reaching 45 nautical miles per hour.
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