Israeli fighter jets flew over 1,000 miles to strike the port city of Hudaydah in western Yemen on Monday, after Houthi militants fired a ballistic missile that landed near Israel’s main international airport this weekend.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The Israeli strike was the latest tit-for-tat volley between Israel and the Houthis, the Iranian-backed armed group that controls much of northwestern Yemen. For more than a year, the Houthis have been shooting missiles and drones at Israel, in what they call a solidarity campaign with Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel, the United States and Britain, alongside other countries, have repeatedly bombarded the militants in an attempt to compel them to cease its attacks. The Houthis have also attacked and menaced ships, both commercial and military, traversing the Red Sea as part of a purported attempt to blockade Israel, even though many of the vessels had tentative Israeli ties.
On Sunday morning, a Houthi ballistic missile evaded Israel’s multilayered aerial defenses before striking near Ben-Gurion International Airport, which lies slightly outside the coastal city of Tel Aviv. Israeli leaders quickly vowed to respond with force.
On Monday evening, the Israeli military began bombing targets in Hudaydah, with planes striking the port — which the military said served as “a main source of income for the Houthi regime” — as well as a concrete factory east of the city. The port is the main conduit for food imports, fuel and aid to enter impoverished northern Yemen, where more than 20 million people live.
Despite months of retaliatory airstrikes and ballistic missile attacks, neither Israel nor the Houthis have achieved their stated goals. The Houthis have pledged to continue firing on Israel until the end of the Israeli campaign against Hamas in Gaza, which Israel appears poised to escalate.
Some Israeli military analysts have argued that the options in subduing the country’s distant enemy are limited, even with international backing.
President Trump has ramped up the U.S. military campaign against the Houthis, which began under the Biden administration. Mr. Trump has vowed that the group will be “completely annihilated,” and has tightened U.S. sanctions against the militia. He also re-designated the group as a “foreign terrorist organization.”
U.S. officials have offered little public information on recent American operations against the Houthis. But Houthi officials have said that the U.S. strikes have killed a large numbers of civilians. The tolls could not be independently verified, however, as the Houthis hold a tight grip on the flow of information out of areas under their sway.
In April, an American strike targeted the port of Ras Isa, a major fuel depot in Hudaydah, killing at least 74 people and wounding more than 150 others, said Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry. He identified many as civilian port workers.
