Yahya Saree, military spokesman for Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebel group, speaks during a rally in solidarity with Palestine and Lebanon, in Sanaa, on November 22, 2024. (Mohammed Huwais/AFP)
The IDF confirms striking in Yemen, saying Israeli fighter jets struck Houthi targets following the Iran-backed rebel group’s repeated missile and drone attacks on Israel.
According to an IDF statement, the targets struck by the warplanes were “used by Houthi forces for their military operations.”
“Attacking these targets harms the terrorist authorities by preventing the exploitation of infrastructure for military and terror purposes, including transferring Iranian weaponry to the region,” the military says.
The IDF also says that “with Iran’s guidance and funding,” the Houthis have acted together with Iran-backed militias over the past year to attack Israel, “undermine regional stability and disrupt global shipping.”
“The IDF is determined to continue acting and striking whoever threatens citizens of the State of Israel, at any distance required.”
The Houthi-controlled satellite channel al-Masirah reports that some of the strikes in Yemen targeted power stations in the capital, as well as the Ras Isa oil terminal on the Red Sea.
A Houthi military spokesman meanwhile announces that the Iran-backed rebel group will give “an important statement” in the coming hours, amid the strikes in Yemen and shortly after the IDF said it intercepted a missile fired from there toward central Israel.
Before the IDF confirmed the strikes in Yemen, there had been speculations that they were being carried out by the Americans, to which a US military official promptly replied in an interview with the The Associated Press that the attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen weren’t being carried out by the Americans, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing strikes.
The strikes, which shook Houthi-held Sanaa, came not long after the Israel Defense Forces said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen. There is no immediate statement from the IDF on the Yemen strikes.
Credit: Times of Israel (ToI)
