Houthis vow to continue attacking Israel despite strikes on Yemen

A Houthi politician said the group will continue to attack Israel in cooperation with the Palestinians despite the increase in Israeli airstrikes in Yemen.

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti told the BBC that the Houthis would “increase our army in Israel” until they stopped what he called “killing in Gaza”.

On Thursday, Israeli warplanes hit the international airport in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and ports and power plants on the Red Sea coast, killing at least four people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that his response to more than a year of missile and drone attacks by the Iran-backed group is “just getting started”.

During the night, the Houthis fired another missile at Israel, which the Israeli military said was intercepted before it reached Israeli territory.

The UN secretary-general said he was “deeply concerned” by the growing number of people.

He said the demonstrations at the airport and ports were “very dangerous” and warned that they would pose “great risks to humanitarian work” in the war-torn country.

The Houthis, who control northwestern Yemen, began attacking Israel and international ships shortly after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October 2023.

Israel has carried out four airstrikes against the Houthis since July in response to 400 missiles and drones that the Israeli military says have been launched into the country from Yemen, many of which have been shot down.

The US and UK have also carried out airstrikes in Yemen in response to the group’s attacks on dozens of commercial vessels in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the political organization of the Houthis, told the BBC Newshour program on Friday that Yemenis are now “starting to fight” against the US, the UK and Israel after fighting what he called their “weapons” during Yemen. ten years of civil war. He appears to be referring to the Saudi-led coalition that intervened to support the Yemeni government when the Houthis seized control of Sanaa in 2015.

“We are committed to continuing our military mission in support of Gaza and we will not stop until the deadly attacks and the siege of Gaza are over. We will expand our military mission to Israel,” he said. Israel has strongly denied that its forces are carrying out massacres of Palestinians in Gaza.

Bukhaiti said the Houthis do not need Iran’s support, which has seen its allies Hamas and Hezbollah destroyed by war with Israel over the past 14 months.

“We have enough capabilities – militarily, financially, even with the help of many people – to get through this war, even if we are alone,” he insisted.

He said the Houthis were hoping for a US escalation after President Donald Trump took office next month, but warned it would “backfire”.

Israel’s prime minister said on Thursday evening that his country “attacked the Houthi terrorist group” as part of what he called a “war of liberation”.

“We are determined to cut off this terrorist arm of Iran. We will work hard until we finish the job,” said Benjamin Netanyahu.

Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that Israel will “hunt down all Houthi leaders”, as it did with the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah.

UN spokeswoman Stéphanie Tremblay said Secretary General António Guterres is “deeply concerned about the escalating threat in the region and reiterates his call for all parties to cease hostilities and exercise restraint”.

The Israeli military said its airstrikes targeted the Houthis’ “military infrastructure” at Sanaa International Airport and the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power plants, as well as infrastructure at the Red Sea ports of Hudaydah, Salif and Ras Kanatib that use weapons. Iran secretly.

A spokesman for the Houthis said that only civilian areas were affected and that the attacks resulted in casualties and property damage.

The Houthi organization controlled by Saba said that three people were killed at Sanaa airport and another three were killed in Hudaydah province.

However, Houthi-controlled Yemen’s deputy administration minister, Yahya al-Sayani, named the four dead at a press conference on Friday.

He said Sanaa’s air traffic control tower, launch pad and transport equipment had been hit and damaged, and he accused Israel of violating international and civil aviation laws.

This happened at the airport when the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was about to board the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) plane there.

A UN flight attendant was seriously injured and was flown to Jordan on Friday after undergoing surgery at a local hospital, according to Dr Tedros.

“We are very grateful to the UNHAS team for their work and for the swift evacuation of Yemen,” he wrote on X. “Attacks on civilians and humanitarian aid must stop, everywhere.”

The head of the WHO led a high-level delegation to Yemen to assess the humanitarian situation in the country with the world’s worst cholera epidemic and 80% of the population in need of aid. He was also asked to try to negotiate the release of 16 UN staff who have been arrested by the Houthis.

It is customary for the UN to share information about humanitarian flights with all relevant groups. However, the Israeli military told the Associated Press that they did not know that the UN delegation was at the airport.

WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said her delegation was “in touch with all stakeholders to find out the facts” about the incident.