Fears of escalation after Israel hits Houthi-held Yemen port

Yemenis have held anti-Israel and anti-US rallies. Photo / Mohammed Huwais, AFP

Israel pounded Yemen’s Houthi-held port of Hodeida with airstrikes on Monday for the second time in a month, stoking fears of escalation as it warned Yemen could face the same fate as Iran.

Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen have come under repeated Israeli strikes since the Iran-backed rebels began launching missile and drone attacks on Israel, declaring they act in solidarity with Palestinians over the Gaza war.

In its latest raids, Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel struck “targets of the Houthi terror regime at the port of Hodeida” and aimed to prevent any attempt to restore infrastructure previously hit.

The renewed strikes on Yemen are part of a year-long Israeli bombing campaign against the Houthis, but the latest threats have raised fears of a wider conflict in the poverty-stricken Arabian Peninsula country.

“Yemen’s fate will be the same as Tehran’s,” Katz said.

His warning was a reference to the wave of surprise strikes Israel launched on Iran on June 13, targeting key military and nuclear facilities.

During the 12-day war, the United States carried out its own attacks on Iran’s nuclear programme on June 22, striking facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.

A Gulf official told AFP there were “serious concerns in Riyadh ... that the Israeli strikes on the Houthis could turn into a large, sustained campaign to oust the movement’s leaders”.

The Houthis withstood more than a decade of war against a well-armed, Saudi-led international coalition, though fighting has died down in the past few years.

Any Israeli escalation could “plunge the region into utter chaos”, said the official, requesting anonymity because he cannot brief the media.

‘Heavy equipment’

The Huthis’ Al-Masirah television reported “a series of Israeli airstrikes on the Hodeida port”.

A Houthi security official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP that “the bombing destroyed the port’s dock, which had been rebuilt following previous strikes”.

On July 7, Israeli strikes hit Hodeida and two nearby locations on the coast, with targets including the Galaxy Leader cargo ship, captured in November 2023, which the Israelis said had been outfitted with a radar system to track shipping in the Red Sea.

A Yemeni port employee in Hodeida said the strikes targeted “heavy equipment brought in for construction and repair work after Israeli airstrikes on July 7 ... and areas around the port and fishing boats”.

An Israeli military statement said that the targets included “engineering vehicles ... fuel containers, naval vessels used for military activities” against Israel and “additional terror infrastructure used by the Huthi terrorist regime”.

It said the port had been used to transfer weapons from Iran, which were then used by the Houthi rebels against Israel.

The statement added that Israel had identified efforts by the Iran-backed rebels to “re-establish terrorist infrastructure at the port”.

The Houthis recently resumed deadly attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, targeting ships they accuse of having links to Israel.

-Agence France-Presse