Israeli warplanes bombed ports and a power plant in Yemeni territory controlled by the Houthis on Friday, the Israeli military said, in the latest attempt to force the Iranian-backed militant group to stop firing at Israel and commercial ships in the Red Sea.
Israel has escalated its strikes on the Houthis in recent weeks in response to repeated attacks by the Yemeni militia, which has been launching missiles and drones against Israel in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza. The United States and Britain have also struck Yemen repeatedly in an effort to secure international waterways from Houthi attacks, including new American strikes on Wednesday.
But it was far from clear whether Israel and its allies could successfully compel the Houthis to end their attacks on Israel and on ships through a bombing campaign. Months of Israeli and American airstrikes have failed to deter the well-equipped militia from conducting attacks.
The Israeli military said it had bombed the Hezyaz power station near Sana, the Houthi-controlled capital, and the Red Sea ports of Hudaydah and Ras Isa. The power station is not far from where thousands of Yemenis had gathered in a weekly rally in solidarity with Palestinians, and Ras Isa is Yemen’s main oil export terminal.
Experts have warned that attacking ports like Hudaydah, a major conduit for essential supplies in northern Yemen, could further worsen what is already one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Rocked by civil war for more than a decade, millions of people in Yemen face the threat of malnutrition, according to the United Nations.
The Israeli military said it had struck targets at sites that were being used by the Houthis for military purposes. More than 20 aircraft took part in the operation, which required in-flight refueling, and dropped about 50 munitions, it said.
One worker at the Hezyaz power station was wounded, according to al-Masira, the Houthi-affiliated broadcaster. There were no other immediate reports of serious casualties.
“The port of Hudaydah is paralyzed and the port of Ras Isa is ablaze,” Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, said in a statement. “The message is clear: Anyone who harms Israel will be struck tenfold.”
The Houthis, who control much of western Yemen, are more than 1,000 miles from Israeli territory and have survived numerous efforts to defeat them since they rose to power in a civil war that began in 2014. The United States designates the Houthis as a terrorist group, and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, U.S. allies in the region, intervened in the civil war to fight against the Houthis.
Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 prompted the Gaza war, the Houthis have fired hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel. They have also hampered global shipping by firing at passing commercial freighters in a self-declared effort to enforce a blockade on Israel.
Over the past two months, the Houthis have stepped up their attacks, sending Israelis across central Israel rushing for bomb shelters late at night as air-raid sirens blare. On Thursday, Houthi militants fired three drones at Israeli territory; the Israeli military said it intercepted them all.
Israel has bombarded Yemen several times in response — sending its jets more than 1,000 miles to do so — but has struggled to decisively subdue the Houthis.
After the strikes on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, said that “the Houthis are paying, and will continue to pay, a heavy price for their aggression against us.”
But Israel’s options against its faraway enemy are limited. Israel’s security establishment has never prioritized Yemen and for years did not intensively focus on gathering intelligence on the Houthis, experts say.
The Houthis rarely expend their munitions in massive barrages, instead firing a missile or a drone at a time. They could likely maintain that pace for a long time, military experts say. Even if there were a cease-fire in Gaza, the Houthis might continue firing in an attempt to leverage their newfound significance on the regional stage, they say.
On Friday, Mr. Katz threatened to kill Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the group’s leader, as well as its other commanders.
“No one is immune,” Mr. Katz said. “We will hunt you down and destroy the terror infrastructure which you built. Israel’s long arm will reach you, wherever you are.”
Israel’s intelligence agencies spent months hunting for Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, in the relatively small enclave of the Gaza Strip. Experts say it would be much more difficult to locate Houthi leaders in the much larger and less well-surveilled territory of Yemen.
Here are other developments in the region:
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An Israeli airstrike on Friday in southern Lebanon killed at least two people, according to the country’s health ministry, a day after Lebanon elected a new president amid resurgent hopes of peace and stability. The attack, which Lebanon’s state-run news agency said targeted a vehicle, comes with just over two weeks to go until a cease-fire agreement expires between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Amid accusations of cease-fire violations by both sides, Lebanon has reported to the U.N. Security Council that Israel had launched over 800 “ground and air attacks” since the cease-fire came into effect in November.
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