Six killed in Israeli strikes on Yemen's Hodeida Port, rebels vow retaliation

Six persons were killed in an Israeli strike on Yemen's rebel-held port of Hodeida, Houthi health authorities said on Sunday, as the rebel group's leader threatened an escalation in attacks.

Saturday's strike on the port, a key entry point for fuel and humanitarian aid to war-ravaged Yemen, is the first claimed by Israel in the Arabian peninsula's poorest country, about 2,000 km away.

The attack also injured 83, many of them with severe burns, the rebel-run health ministry said in a statement carried by Houthi media. Three people remain missing, it added. Israel said it carried out the strike in response to a drone attack by the Houthis on Tel Aviv which killed one person on Friday.


On Sunday, Houthi chief Abdul Malik al-Houthi said the strikes would lead to "further escalation and more attacks targeting Israel". Friday's Houthi drone strike on Tel Aviv has changed the rules of engagement and opened "a new phase" in operations against Israel, he added.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the rebels' "response to the Israeli aggression against our country is inevitably coming and will be huge".

On Sunday, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen towards the Red Sea resort town of Eilat, noting that "the projectile did not cross into Israeli territory".

Saree said the rebels had fired ballistic missiles towards Eilat, the latest in a string of Houthi attempts to hit the port city.

Saturday's strikes destroyed five cranes and reduced the port's fuel storage capacity from 150,000 tonnes to 50,000, said the US-based Navanti Group, citing merchants.

In Hodeida, firefighters struggled on Sunday to contain the blaze as thick plumes of smoke hung above the city, an AFP correspondent reported.

Fuel storage tanks and a power plant at the port were still ablaze amid "slow" firefighting efforts, said a port employee.