Israeli warplanes bombed a power station and two ports in Houthi-controlled Yemen on Friday in retaliation for Houthi drone and missile strikes against Israel, and pro-Houthi media said at least one person had been killed and nine wounded.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Iran-backed Houthi militia were "paying and will continue to pay a heavy price for their aggression against us".
The strikes hit the Red Sea port of Ras Issa and the major port of Hodeidah and the Hezyaz central power station in Yemen's capital Sanaa, and Harf Sufyan District in Amran province also came under air attack, said Al Masirah TV, the main news outlet run by the Houthis.
An employee at the Ras Issa port was killed and six others were injured, while three people, including a worker, were wounded in the strikes on Hezyaz, the outlet said.
The Israeli military said more than 20 aircraft took part in the attack, dropping around 50 bombs and missiles in an operation which required airborne refuelling during the 2,000-km (1,240-mile) flight.
Earlier, British security firm Ambrey said airstrikes on the Ras Issa port targeted oil storage facilities in the vicinity of shipping berths, though no merchant vessels were reported to have been damaged.
The supply of petroleum derivatives is stable, the Houthi government spokesperson Hashem Sharaf Eddine said after the attack.
An Israeli military statement confirmed the targets, saying the power station served as a "central source of energy for the Houthi terrorist regime in its military activities". It added that the targets struck were examples of the "Houthis' exploitation of civilian infrastructure".
Within the past 48 hours, the Houthis have fired three drones at Israel's commercial hub Tel Aviv and more drones and missiles at the U.S. aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said.
The Houthis have targeted Israel, hundreds of kilometres to the north as well as international shipping in waters near Yemen since November 2023 in support of Palestinian militants at war with Israel in Gaza.
Israel has responded with airstrikes in Houthi-held areas of Yemen, as have British and U.S. forces in the region.
Netanyahu said last month Israel was only at the beginning of its campaign against the Houthis.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
11 Comments
NB
Israel tries to defend its people against an aggressor that shoots ballistic missiles from 2,000 km away.
Aly Rustom
Israel isn't defending anyone. it is the aggressor
Aly Rustom
Jan. 10 03:38 pm JST
This is not bogus. It is fact. And there is no distortion at all. This is a matter of history.
No they are not. They are Ashkanazi Jews. Yes they are Jews, but the argument that following a religion means you can claim right to a land in a different continent is utter BS.
Those were the Sephardi Jews who lived side by side with Arabs in peace prior to the creation of the Zionist state. MANY of which themselves are against the state of Israel.
NO THEY DIDN'T! They kicked the Arabs off of their land and stole their homes and land.
I do? Where did I ever say that? Show me. I challenge you. You are the one constantly cheering the slaughter of innocent people, not us.
They committed a genocide no doubt about that. But 2 wrongs don't make a right.
DId the Japanese commit a genocide against the Ainu?
Did the Muslim immigrants in Europe commit a Genocide and wipe out the Europeans?
What about them? Show me where they are slaughtering the natives and wiping them out and then we'll talk.
No. THAT'S the Israeli viewpoint.
Capuchin
I've always found the "well, they committed genocide so why can't I?" defense to be rather perplexing. Childish and disturbingly unselfaware for a people that were victims of a holocaust.
kurisupisu
Destroying ports and oil depots and airports is definitely not ‘going after terrorists’
Israel obviously seeks to push the ordinary Yemeni into poverty and suffering.
TaiwanIsNotChina
They always had the option not to attack Israel.
GuruMick
Americans elected Trump ....reminds me of the old saying "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."
GuruMick
Relevant to this article because of Houthi motivation to attack
Lancet now reporting Gaza death toll around 65,000 with 60 % women, children and men over 65 years old.
And not every Gazan male under 65 can be considered a Hamas fighter.
Conclusion ...Israel is engaging on a mass and indiscriminate slaughter of innocent people.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Spoken by a great American and applicable to all people.
Fos
GuruMick
The West makes a big deal of the fact that it is morally virtuous but to me it looks like hypocrisy in the extreme.
This terrible conflict would end the first 24 hours the US administration stops shipping lethal weapons to Israel. Over $28 billions (officially) since January 2024. But, as we know, there is too much at stake for the US lobbies in Wall Street
NB
By pursuing the genocidal slogan "free Palestine from the river to the sea", which intention is to cleanse the land entirely from the other ethnic group, the Palestinians will only bring further disasters, and much bigger, upon themselves. It is impossible to free a land by removing another ethnic group which also resides on that land. It did not work in Rwanda, and it cannot work anywhere. It is not possible to rehabilitate the rights of one nation by butchering another nation.