A handout photo made available by the Houthis media center shows a Houthis-operated helicopter flying over the cargo ship Galaxy Leader in the Red Sea off the coast of Hodeidah, Yemen, on Nov. 19, 2023. Israel on Monday said its war planes attack the vessel, saying the Houthis had put radar equipment. File Photo by Houthis Media/EPA
Israeli fighter jets overnight attacked three Yemeni ports under the Houthis’ control, hitting infrastructure it accused the Iran-proxy militia of using to receive weapons from Iran.
The Israel Defense Forces announced a few hours after the attack that it detected two missiles launched toward Israel from Yemen and that “interception attempts” were made, the results of which were pending.
The IDF said it struck Houthi targets at the ports of Hudaydah, Ras Issa and As-Salif.
Among the targets was the seized Galaxy Leader vessel, which the Houthis captured, along with its crew, in November 2023 when the Iran-backed group entered the Israel-Hamas war.
The Houthis, Israel alleges, had installed a radar system on the Japanese ship that was used to monitor vessels in international waters.
A power station in Ras Kantib was also targeted, which Israel said was a major electricity supply facility for the Houthis’ military.
“The strike was carried out in response to repeated attacks by the Houthi terror regime against the State of Israel, its citizens and civilian infrastructure in the country, including the launching of unmanned aerial vehicles and surface-to-surface missiles toward Israeli territory,” the IDF said.
While Israel claimed its attack “destroyed” the Houthi infrastructure, Ameen Hayyan, a spokesman for the militant group, said in a statement that their air defenses “effectively repelled the Israeli aggression and forced a significant portion of its formations to retreat.”
Israel and Iran have long been in a proxy war that exploded into the open on Oct. 7, 2023, when Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza launched a surprise bloody assault on Israel.
Israel has responded by devastating the Palestinian enclave, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians.
The overnight Israeli attack, however, comes amid a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Iran and during cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas.
