“Following the approval of attack plans by Defence Minister Israel Katz, Air Force fighter jets, under the direction of the Intelligence and Navy branches, recently attacked military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the western coastal strip and deep inside Yemen,” the Israeli military said in a statement on Thursday morning.
“The targets attacked are used by the Houthi forces for their military operations,” the military added.
Al Masirah TV, the main news outlet run by Yemen’s Houthi movement controlling much of the country, said seven people were killed in an Israeli attack on the port of as-Salif and the rest in two strikes on the Ras Isa oil facility; both are located in the western province of Hodeidah.
“The enemy launched four aggressive raids targeting the port … and two raids targeting” an oil facility, Al Masirah reported.
The series of “aggressive raids” also targeted two central power stations south and north of the capital, Sanaa, it added.
Yemen’s SABA news agency also reported that four raids targeted Hodeidah, with two hitting the Ras Isa oil facility, killing and injuring some of its employees.
Israel’s military spokesman Daniel Hagari stated Israeli forces had carried out strikes on Houthi military sites, including ports and energy infrastructure in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, following the firing of a Houthi missile towards Israel overnight – which was destroyed – and repeated attacks over the past 14 months.
Houthi fighters in Yemen have carried out months of attacks on Israel, and shipping linked to the regime in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, in what it says is a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 45,000 people – the majority being women and children.