Despite the increasing number of Israeli air strikes in Yemen, a Houthi political official has stated that the group will continue to attack Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti told the BBC that the Houthis would “escalate our military targeting of Israel” until it stopped what he called “the genocide in Gaza”.
On Thursday, Israeli warplanes struck the international airport in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and ports and power stations on the Red Sea coast, killing at least four people.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the country’s response to the Iran-backed group’s missile and drone attacks was “just getting started”.
Overnight, the Houthis launched another ballistic missile at Israel, which the Israeli military claimed was intercepted before it reached Israeli territory.
The UN secretary general expressed “grave concern” over the escalation.
He also described the strikes on the airport and ports as “especially alarming” and warned that they posed “grave risks to humanitarian operations” in the conflict-torn country.
The Houthis, who control northwestern Yemen, began attacking Israel and international shipping in October 2023, shortly after Israel and Hamas launched their war in Gaza.
Since July, Israel has launched four rounds of air strikes against the Houthis in retaliation for the 400 missiles and drones launched from Yemen, the majority of which have been shot down.
The United States and the United Kingdom have also launched air strikes in Yemen in response to the group’s attacks on dozens of merchant ships in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, told the BBC’s Newshour program on Friday that Yemenis were “moving to a direct confrontation” with the US, UK, and Israel after fighting what he called their “tools” during Yemen’s decade-long civil war.
He appeared to be referring to the Saudi-led coalition that intervened to support the Yemeni government after the Houthis took control of Sana’a in 2015.
“We are committed to continuing our military operation in support of Gaza, and we will not stop until the genocide crimes and the Gaza siege end. “We are going to escalate our military targeting of Israel,” he stated. Israel has categorically denied that its forces are perpetrating genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Bukhaiti stated that the Houthis did not require the support of Iran, which has seen its allies Hamas and Hezbollah decimated by wars with Israel over the last 14 months.
“We have enough capabilities – militarily, economically, and even in popular support – to go through this battle, even if we are on our own,” he told reporters.
He also stated that the Houthis expected an escalation by the US after President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month, but warned that it would “backfire”.
On Thursday evening, Israel’s prime minister stated that his country had “attacked targets of the Houthi terrorist organisation” as part of a “war of redemption”.
“We are determined to cut off the terrorist arm of Iran’s axis of evil. “We will persist until the job is completed,” Benjamin Netanyahu stated.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that Israel would “hunt down all the Houthi leaders,” just as it had done with Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
UN spokeswoman Stéphanie Tremblay said Secretary General António Guterres remained “deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation in the region and reiterates his call for all parties involved to cease all military actions and exercise utmost restraint.”
The Israeli military claimed that its air strikes targeted Houthi “military infrastructure” at Sanaa International Airport, the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power plants, as well as infrastructure at the Red Sea ports of Hudaydah, Salif, and Ras Kanatib used to smuggle Iranian weapons.
According to the Houthis’ military spokesman, only civilian facilities were targeted, and the strikes caused fatalities and material damage.
According to the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency, three people were killed at Sanaa airport, while three more were killed in Hudaydah province.
However, Yahya al-Sayani, the government’s deputy transport minister in Houthi-controlled Yemen, stated at a news conference on Friday that four people had died.
He claimed that Israel violated international law and aviation regulations by hitting and damaging the control tower, departure lounge, and navigational equipment at Sanaa airport.
Flights at the airport resumed at 10:00 (07:00 GMT) on Friday, he said.
The airport strikes occurred just as the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was about to board a UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) plane.
According to Dr Tedros, a crew member on the UN plane was seriously injured and flown to Jordan on Friday after undergoing surgery at a local hospital.
“Deepest gratitude to the UNHAS team for their service and swift evacuation from Yemen,” he wrote in an email. “Attacks on civilians and humanitarians must stop, everywhere.”
The WHO chief was leading a high-level delegation to Yemen to assess the humanitarian situation, which has the world’s highest cholera rates and 80% of the population requires some form of assistance. He was also asked to try to negotiate the release of 16 UN personnel being held by the Houthis.
It is standard procedure for the UN to share full details of humanitarian flights with all relevant parties. However, the Israeli military told the Associated Press that it was unaware that the UN delegation was at the airport.
WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris stated that their delegation was “in contact with all relevant parties to ascertain the facts” surrounding the incident.
