The Israeli military said Saturday that it has hit Houthi military targets in Yemen as an act of “self-defense.”
“A short while ago, [Israel Defense Forces (IDF)] fighter jets struck military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the area of the Al Hudaydah Port in Yemen in response to the hundreds of attacks carried out against the State of Israel in recent months,” the IDF said in its afternoon post.
A later post by the IDF featured a video of Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari in which he said that in recent “months, the Houthi terrorist group, Iran’s terror proxy in Yemen, has launched over 200 aerial attacks against Israeli civilians and infrastructures.”
“On Friday morning, in one of these [unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) ] attacks, the Houthis fired an Iranian explosive UAV from Yemen into Israeli territory,” Hagari said in the video.
Hagari added that the UAV hit an apartment building in Tel Aviv, near the U.S. Embassy Branch Office, resulting in the death of an Israeli.
“The Houthis’ attacks are acts of aggression, a violation of international law and a threat to the international peace and security,” Hagari continued. “Today, Israel stepped up its actions in self-defense against these attacks. The Israeli Air Force conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen.”
The Associated Press reported that the Ministry of Health in the Yemeni city of Sanaa said due to the strikes, an initial amount of 80 people were injured. A spokesperson for the Houthis, Mohammed Abdulsalam, said in a post on X the “blatant Israeli aggression” had gone after facilities holding fuel and a power station.
Some health officials based in Yemen also said the strikes caused the deaths of multiple people.