Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today sent a stern warning to anyone “doubting” Israel after Israeli warplanes killed three people in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni port of Hodeida.

The strikes on the key port are the first claimed by Israel in the Arabian peninsula’s poorest country and came in “direct response” to Iran-backed rebels’ drone attack in Tel Aviv on Friday that killed an Israeli civilian.

“I have a simple message for Israel’s enemies: Do not doubt Israel’s determination to defend itself on every front. All those who seek to harm us will pay a very heavy price for their aggression,” Netanyahu said in a televised address.

He also said the port that was targeted was not an “innocent port”.  

“It was used as their (Houthis) entry point for weapons that are supplied by Iran to its Houthi terrorist proxies. The Houthis have used those weapons to attack Israel, to attack Arab states in the region, to attack many others,” Netanyahu said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening:

“From the beginning of the war, I made it clear that Israel will act against all those who attack us.

This is why earlier today, I asked the Israeli cabinet to back my decision to strike against the Houthi targets in Yemen. pic.twitter.com/xWE3KXQaeV

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) July 20, 2024

“This strike comes in direct response to the killer drone attack that killed one person and injured several others, a hundred yards from the US Consulate in Tel Aviv. But the aggression of the Houthis goes well beyond that single attack. For the past eight months, the Houthis have launched hundreds of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones against Israel,” he said.

Netanyahu also said the “only reason those attacks have not caused a greater loss of life has been the defensive measures taken by Israel and its allies, which together have intercepted hundreds of projectiles”.

“But the drone attack that struck Israel on Friday shows that more than defensive action is needed to curtail the Houthis. Offensive action is also needed. It’s needed to ensure that Iran’s terror proxies pay a price for their brazen aggression,” he added

He thanked the United States, Britain, France, and other members of the international maritime coalition that was formed to repel Houthi attacks.

Israeli Jets Strike Yemen Rebels At Hodeida Port

The Israeli strikes killed three people and wounded 87 at Hodeida port. The attack targeted “fuel storage facilities and a power plant” in Hodeida “to pressure Yemen to stop supporting” Palestinians in Gaza, top Houthi official Mohammed Abdulsalam said while referring to the Israel-Hamas war.

Hodeida port, which is a vital entry point for imports and international aid for rebel-held areas of Yemen, had remained largely untouched through the decade-long war between the Houthis and the internationally recognised government propped up by neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

The Houthis’ Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, has now warned that the Israeli strikes on Hodeida marked a dangerous turn nine months into the war in Gaza.

The Israeli Army said on July 13 it has struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a fatal drone attack by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the previous day. The Israeli strikes appeared to be the first on Yemeni soil since the Israel-Hamas war began in October.

A number of “military targets” were hit in the western port city of Hodeidah, a Houthi stronghold, the Israeli Army said, adding that its attack was “in response to the hundreds of attacks carried out against the state of Israel in recent months.”

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam wrote on social media platform X that Yemen was subjected to a “blatant Israeli aggression” that targeted fuel storage facilities and the province’s power station. He said the attacks aim “to increase the suffering of the people and to pressure Yemen to stop supporting Gaza.”

Mr. Abdulsalam said the attacks will only make the people of Yemen and its armed forces more determined to support Gaza. Mohamed Ali al-Houthi of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen wrote on X that “there will be impactful strikes.”

A media outlet controlled by Houthi rebels in Yemen, Al-Masirah TV, said the strikes on storage facilities for oil and diesel at the port and on the local electricity company caused deaths and injuries, and several people suffered severe burns. It said there was a large fire at the port and power cuts were widespread.

Health officials in Yemen said the strikes killed a number of people and injured others, but did not elaborate.

The drone attack by Houthi rebels killed one person in the center of Tel Aviv and wounded at least 10 others near the United States Embassy early on July 19.

Virtually all projectiles fired from the southern Arabian country toward Israel have so far been intercepted. Israel said air defences detected the drone on July 19 but an “error” occurred and “there was no interception.“

Since January, the U.S. and British forces have been striking targets in Yemen, in response to the Houthis’ attacks on commercial shipping that the rebels have described as retaliation for Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza. However, many of the ships targeted are not linked to Israel.

The joint force airstrikes have so far done little to deter the Iran-backed force.

Analysts and Western intelligence services have long accused Iran of arming the Houthis, a claim Tehran denies. In recent years, U.S. naval forces have intercepted a number of ships packed with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and missile parts en route from Iran to Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

Also on July 20, at least 13 people were killed in three Israeli airstrikes that hit refugee camps in central Gaza overnight, according to Palestinian health officials, as cease-fire talks in Cairo appeared to make progress.

Among the dead in Nuseirat Refugee Camp and Bureij Refugee Camp were three children and one woman, according to Palestinian ambulance teams that transported the bodies to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. AP journalists counted the 13 corpses at the hospital.

Earlier, a medical team delivered a live baby from a Palestinian woman killed in an airstrike that hit her home in Nuseirat late Thursday evening.

Ola al-Kurd, 25, was killed along with six others in the blast, but was quickly rushed by emergency workers to Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza in the hope of saving the unborn child. Hours later, doctors told The Associated Press that a baby boy had been delivered.

The still-unnamed newborn is stable but has suffered from a shortage of oxygen and has been placed in an incubator, said Dr. Khalil Dajran on July 19.

Ola’s “husband and a relative survived yesterday’s strike, while everyone else died,” Majid al-Kurd, the deceased woman’s cousin, told the AP on July 20.

“The baby is in good health based on what doctors said,” he added.

The war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel, has killed more than 38,900 people, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has created a humanitarian catastrophe in the coastal Palestinian territory, displaced most of its 2.3 million population and triggered widespread hunger.

Hamas’ October attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and militants took about 250 hostage. About 120 remain in captivity, with about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.

The Israel-Hamas war has left thousands of women and children dead, according to health officials in the Gaza Strip. In April, a premature Palestinian baby was rescued from her dead mother’s womb but died days later.

In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 20-year-old man was shot dead by Israeli forces late on July 19. Commenting on the shooting, the Israeli Army said its forces opened fire on a group of Palestinians hurling rocks at Israeli troops in the town of Beit Ummar.

An eyewitness said Ibrahim Zaqeq was not directly involved in the clashes and was standing nearby.

Zaqeq “just looked at them, they shot him in the head. I picked him up from here and took him to the clinic,” said Thare Abu Hashem.

On July 20, Hamas identified Zaqeq as one of its members. The militant group’s green flag was wrapped around his corpse during the funeral.

Violence has surged in the territory since the Gaza war began. At least 577 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since then according to the Ramallah-based Health Ministry which tracks Palestinian deaths.

In Cairo, international mediators, including the United States, are continuing to push Israel and Hamas toward a phased deal that would halt the fighting and free about 120 hostages in Gaza.

On July 19, the U.S. Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, said a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel that will release Israeli hostages captive by the group in Gaza is “inside the 10-yard line,” but added “we know that anything in the last 10 yards are the hardest.”

Fruitless stop-and-start negotiations between the warring sides have been underway since November’s one-week cease-fire, with both Hamas and Israel repeatedly accusing each other of scuppering the effort to reach a deal.