Israeli strikes in Yemen kill 35 people, say the Houthis

On Wednesday, at least 35 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on the zones controlled by the Houthi, according to the Ministry of Health of the Group supported by Iran.

The Israeli army said it has struck military objectives in the capital Sanaa and the province of Al-Jawf, including what it called “the Houthi public relations headquarters”, in response to recent missile and drone attacks against Israel.

However, the military spokesman for the Houthis said that the objectives were civilian, adding that journalists and passers-by had been killed when the offices of two newspapers were affected.

In the early hours of Thursday, the Israeli army said it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen.

The Houthis did not comment on the launch, but one of the group’s leaders had promised to respond to the Israeli strikes “of all our strength”.

Last month, an Israeli strike in Sanaa killed the Prime Minister of the Government managed by the Houthi, Ahmed al-Rahawi, and several ministers.

Videos published online Wednesday afternoon showed that black smoke plumes raising sites of several explosions in Sanaa, and the first stakeholders excavating the rubble of damaged buildings.

The Israeli Defense Forces (FDI) announced in a statement that the planes had struck an unspecified number of military objectives in the capital and in Al-Jawf, including military camps, a fuel storage installation and what it called the “public relations department” of the Houthis.

He said the ministry was “responsible for the distribution and dissemination of propaganda messages in the media, including speeches by chief Houthi Abdul Malik (Al-Houthi) and declarations by spokesperson Yahya Sarea”.

The military camps had been used to plan attacks against Israel, he added.

These attacks involved the launch of hundreds of unmanned air vehicles (UAV) and surface missiles on Israeli territory over almost two years. Most were intercepted, but a drone hit an airport in southern Israel on Sunday, injuring a person.

“Several days ago, we eliminated most members of the Houthi terrorist government. In response, the Houthis drew two days ago at Ramon airport,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at an event in Bat Yam, in the center of Israel.

“This has not weakened our resolution – we have struck them again today since the air, their terrorist facilities, their terrorist bases with a large number of terrorists and other installations. We will continue to strike. The one who strikes us, the one who attacks us – we will reach them.”

Houthi’s military spokesman Yahya said his air defenses had hired Israeli aircraft and denied that missile launch sites had been affected.

“The strikes (of Israel) were targeting purely civilian targets,” he said.

The group’s Al-Masirah TV reported that the Sanaa strikes had reached a medical station in the southwest of the city, the head office of the direction of the moral management in the central district of Al-Tahrir, and the offices of the newspapers September 26 and Yemen, which, according to him, caused significant victims and damage to neighboring houses and stores.

The canal also said that there had been strikes on a government complex and a branch of the central bank of the city of Al-Hazm, in the province of Al-Jawf.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Dr. ANEES AL-ASBAHI, said on Wednesday evening that 28 people were killed and 113 injured in Sanaa, and that seven other people had been killed and 18 injured in Al-Jawf.

He added that the number of deaths was likely to increase because the first speakers were still looking for people missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

The Head of the Supreme Political Council of Yemen, Mahdi Al-Mashat, said: “The Zionist aggression against our country has failed.”

“All the Israelis must remain on alert, because the reprisals are inevitable. The attack gave us only the greater opportunity to respond with full force,” he warned.

The Houthis have checked a large part of the Northwest Yemen since they ousted the internationally recognized government of the country from there 10 years ago, causing a civil war.

They began to attack Israel and international expeditions in the South Sea of ​​the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden shortly after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October 2023, saying that they were acting to support the Palestinians.

Israel has carried out numerous air strikes against Houthis in retaliation for the hundreds of missiles and drones that have been launched in the country from Yemen.

The United States and the United Kingdom have also carried out air strikes in Yemen controlled by Houthi in response to the attacks of the Houthis against dozens of merchant ships.