The Israel Air Force, together with the United States and Britain, conducted the largest coordinated airstrikes of the war against the Houthis in Yemen on Friday, targeting a power station and two ports used by the Iran-backed group.
For Israel, this was the fifth counterattack on Yemen’s Houthis since July, with the group having spent around a year attacking the Jewish state.
Regarding the US and England, they have launched more attacks on the Houthis, but their two rounds of attacks on the Iranian proxy earlier this week, combined with the joint attack with Jerusalem on Friday, marked a significant escalation.
Until now, the problem for Israel and the West has been that despite superior firepower versus the Houthis, the Yemen group has been willing to endure even disproportionate counterstrikes so that it can “stay in the game” against Israel in the war with Hamas and continue to cause trouble for global maritime trade for the West, viewed as supportive of Israel.
Whether the joint escalation by Israel, the US, and England will be sufficient to get the Houthis to back down from their near-regular attacks on Israel and on global maritime trade was still unclear at press time, with the Houthis attempting three drone attacks late Thursday.
The targets Israel struck included military infrastructure sites at Hezyaz power station and military infrastructure in the Hodeidah and Ras Issa ports on the Western coast.
An informed source told The Jerusalem Post that during US Central Command (CENTCOM) deputy commander Brad Cooper’s, it was decided that Jerusalem and Washington would coordinate efforts in handling the Houthi threat.
Another source confirmed the strike was coordinated with the American-British coalition, which attacked certain targets while Israel attacked other targets.
According to the source, how the “work” will be “split” between Israel and the coalition is relatively clear.
The coalition was expected to attack weapons facilities, control and command bases, and underground places, while Israel strikes the Houthis’ economic facilities that have both military and civilian use such as ports, airports, power plants, etc.
More than 20 Israeli aircraft took part in the strikes, with around 50 munitions being dropped on terror targets in Yemen.
Airstrikes on Yemen’s port of Ras Issa on Friday targeted oil storage facilities in the vicinity of the shipping berths, and no merchant vessels were reported to have been damaged, British security firm Ambrey said.
According to reports, the 12 strikes north of the capital were conducted by the US and UK on underground infrastructure belonging to the Houthis.
A strike also reportedly hit Sanaa’s main square during the weekly Friday protests in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Some six strikes also reportedly targeted the port of Hodeidah.
After the military publicly confirmed responsibility for the strikes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on X/Twitter, “the Houthis are paying, and will continue to pay, a heavy price for their aggression against us.”
“They pose a danger to Israel and the entire region, including a threat to global freedom of navigation,” Netanyahu wrote. “I repeat: We will not tolerate harm to our citizens and our country.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz said, “The port of Hodeidah is paralyzed, and the port of Ras Issa is burning – there will be no immunity for anyone. We will also hunt down the leaders of the Houthi terrorist organization. Israel’s long hand reaches and will reach anywhere that harms us – including Yemen.”
The Hamas terror group issued a statement condemning the strikes, claiming the action targeted civilian infrastructure and, therefore, “constitutes a blatant violation of international law and an assault on Yemen’s sovereignty and the region’s security.”
Describing the actions as “terrorist,” Hamas claimed that the coalition had targeted a demonstration expressing solidarity with Palestinians – which Hamas described as “a war crime intended to terrorize the Yemeni people and dissuade them from their decision to support efforts to deter the aggression against our Palestinian people.”
Earlier this week, CENTCOM said it had carried out precise attacks on Houthi underground advanced conventional weapons storage facilities.
“The strikes are part of CENTCOM’s effort to degrade Iranian-backed Houthi attempts to threaten regional partners and military and merchant vessels in the region,” it said.
Israel last struck Houthi targets in December, attacking ports and energy infrastructure in Sanaa.
The Houthis have fired over 200 ballistic missiles and over 320 drones at Israel throughout the war.
Shir Perets, Jerusalem Post Staff, and Reuters contributed to this report.