8 killed as Israel launches deadly airstrikes on Yemen

Israel says it has launched its most forceful operation yet against Yemen’s Houthi movement, striking targets in the capital Sanaa following repeated missile and drone attacks on Israeli territory.

According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), dozens of fighter jets targeted facilities linked to the Houthis’ military, security, and intelligence services. The strikes hit multiple sites across the city on Thursday.

The health ministry run by the Houthis condemned the assault, describing it as a “brutal crime.” Officials there said civilian areas, including residential buildings, were struck, leaving eight people dead.

The escalation followed a drone strike the previous day on the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat, which wounded 22 people, two of them seriously.

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The Houthis, who have controlled much of north-west Yemen since ousting the internationally recognised government a decade ago, began launching missiles and drones at Israel and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after the Gaza conflict broke out in October 2023. Israel has responded with multiple rounds of air raids in Yemen.

Footage from Sanaa on Thursday showed thick plumes of smoke rising from at least three different areas of the city. The attack came just before Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the movement’s leader, delivered a televised address.

Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported strikes on residential neighborhoods in Maain and Sabaeen districts, as well as the Dhahban power station. Photographs released by the broadcaster showed damaged and destroyed buildings.

Health ministry spokesman Dr Anees al-Asbahi accused Israel of the “deliberate and systematic targeting of civilian, service, and residential facilities,” calling it “a war crime in every sense of the word.” He said eight people were confirmed dead and 142 injured, with rescue teams still searching the rubble.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that Israel had “delivered a powerful strike on numerous terror targets of the Houthi terror organisation in Sanaa.”

The IDF said the targets included the Houthis’ General Staff Command Headquarters, intelligence compounds, military public relations headquarters, and weapons storage sites. “The IDF will operate against the ongoing and repeated attacks of the Houthi terrorist regime against the State of Israel, will conduct additional offensive operations against the Houthi regime in the near future,” the military said in a statement.

In a separate release, the IDF acknowledged that Wednesday’s drone attack on Eilat had been “detected relatively late,” noting that air-raid sirens were activated and Iron Dome interceptors attempted but failed to bring it down. “The cause for that has been identified, and corrective measures were implemented,” the statement read.

The military added that since the Gaza war began, more than 98% of Houthi drones aimed at Israel had been intercepted.

A Houthi military spokesman described the strike on Eilat as retaliation for “the crimes of genocide and the dangerous escalation carried out by the Israeli enemy against our people in the Gaza Strip.”

Earlier this month, on September 10, Israeli forces bombed targets in Sanaa and al-Jawf province days after another Houthi drone attack on Eilat’s Ramon airport injured one person. That wave of airstrikes killed 35 people, according to the Houthis’ health ministry.

Among the dead were 31 journalists and media workers, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said, calling it the deadliest single attack on media workers worldwide in 16 years. Yemen’s September 26 newspaper reported that all but one of those killed had worked either in its newsroom or at the headquarters of the government’s Moral Guidance Directorate, both of which were hit.

At the time, the IDF said its target was the Houthis’ “Public Relations Department.”

(BBC)