The Israeli military attacked several sites in Yemen on Wednesday that it said were connected to the Houthis, an Iran-backed militia that has fired missiles and drones at Israel since the war in Gaza began almost two years ago.

Anees al-Asbahi, spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry, said in a statement that at least nine people had been killed in the strikes on Wednesday and 118 more injured. Those figures could not be independently verified.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said the attacks were in part a response to a Houthi drone attack that shut down an airport in southern Israel for several hours earlier this week.

“We pounded them today again from the air — in their terror facilities, their terror bases with a great many terrorists and other facilities as well,” he said in a video statement. “Whoever attacks us, we will reach them.”

The Iran-backed Houthi militia, originally a rebel group, has controlled northern Yemen, including the capital, Sana, since a civil war a decade ago. After the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 assault on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, as the subsequent war in Gaza got underway, the Houthis began firing missiles and drones at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea. The group said it was acting in solidarity with Hamas, which is also backed by Iran, and Israel has repeatedly bombed Houthi targets in retaliation.

The Israeli attacks on Wednesday came a day after Israel carried out an airstrike against Hamas officials in Doha, the capital of Qatar, which has acted as a mediator between Hamas and Israel. Arab and Western nations strongly criticized that strike.