Under a sky obscured by clouds of black smoke, a gigantic inferno consumed part of the quays of Yemen's port of Hodeida, on the shores of the Red Sea, burning for 48 hours. On Saturday, July 20, the Israeli air force chose to strike one of the economic pillars of the Houthi rebellion, which controls most of the country. The bombing was carried out in retaliation for a drone attack from Yemen, which, the day before, killed one person in Tel Aviv, after having evaded the Israeli defense system.
Saturday's strikes on the strategic western Yemeni port, which is an entry point for fuel and humanitarian aid, were the first attacks Israel has claimed responsibility for carrying out against the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country, located some 2,000 kilometers from Israel's borders. According to Mohammed Abdelsalam, a spokesperson for the Yemeni group, the attack targeted "fuel storage facilities and a power plant" that supplies this region of the Yemeni coastline to "pressure Yemen to stop supporting" the Palestinians. "The Zionist entity will pay the price for targeting civilian facilities, and we will meet escalation with escalation," warned Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the political bureau of Ansar Allah (meaning "supporters of Allah"), the official name of the movement, which considers itself to be the sole legitimate representative of the Yemeni state.
The air raids targeting the port of Hodeida killed six people and wounded 83, while three are still missing, according to the latest Houthi health ministry death toll. Other operations would follow "if they dare to attack us," declared Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Saturday. Iran, a sponsor and supporter of the Yemeni group, "strongly condemned" the strikes, warning against an "escalation of tensions" in the region.
In response, Yemen's Houthi rebels fired a new missile on Sunday, which was intercepted before reaching the seaside resort city of Eilat, Israel's only port on the Red Sea. Supported by Iran, the Houthis, which rose to power in the north of the country, have controlled the capital, Sana'a, since 2014. They have undertaken a long-distance war against Israel in a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza, which has been under constant Israeli bombardment since the October 7 Hamas attack.
Yemeni rebels have notably attacked ships transiting through the Red Sea, going from Asia to the Mediterranean and Europe. These operations, in a region that is crucial to the global economy, have been presented as targeting ships linked to Israel, and have caused an estimated 20% drop in maritime traffic rates compared with the pre-war period, and contributed to a surge in food prices.
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