DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Houthi response to Israeli airstrikes near Yemen’s Hodeida is coming, the Iran-backed rebel group’s leader declared in a televised speech on Thursday.
Israeli fighter jets struck Houthi oil and fuel facilities at Yemen’s port of Hodeida on Saturday, killing at least nine people and wounding 87, a day after a Houthi drone hit Tel Aviv, killing a man.
“The response is inevitable,” Abdul Malik al-Houthi said.
The group’s attacks on Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza will continue and not be deterred by the Israeli airstrikes, he added.
“Everything that happens from the side of the Israeli enemy will be more incentive for revenge,” al-Houthi said.
The Houthis are reportedly preparing to strike sensitive targets in Israel and in the region after Saturday’s airstrikes.
Sources close to the Yemeni militia quoted by the Lebanese Al-Akhbar daily said that Houthi military leaders have added new items to their “target bank.”
The Yemeni rebel group — in cooperation with other members of the so-called Axis of Resistance of Iran-backed paramilitary groups in Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria — was said to be planning to hit the Israeli Mediterranean ports of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Haifa, in addition to the Red Sea port of Eilat.
In a Security Council briefing on the situation in Yemen Tuesday, United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg warned of a real danger of a devastating regional escalation following the recent events.
“I remain deeply concerned about the continued targeting of international navigation in the Red Sea and its surrounding waterways,” Grundberg said. “Recent developments suggest that the threat against international shipping is increasing in scope and precision.”
The Houthi attacks on Israel and July 20 Israeli retaliatory strikes on Yemen’s port of Hodeida and its oil and power facilities represent “a new and dangerous level” of violence, he said.
Commercial ships have been sunk and damaged, disrupting trade, civilians have died, the Houthis still detain the crew of the Galaxy Leader, a cargo ship they hijacked in November, and the United States and Britain continue airstrikes on military targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, he said.
“It is alarming that there are no signs of de-escalation, let alone a solution,” Grundberg continued.
The Iranian proxy says it has been targeting ships in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza where Israel has been waging a war against Hamas since the terrorist organization’s unprecedented October 7 massacre, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
The US and Britain have carried out retaliatory strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, but Saturday’s attack on Hodeida was the first time Israel has taken direct action against the organization since it began its attacks in October.