SANAA: Yemen’s Houthis said the United States and Israel struck the port of Hodeida on Monday, hours after a reported US air raid on Sanaa and a day after the Iran-backed rebels targeted Israel’s main airport.
The Houthi-run Al-Masirah television said that “US-Israeli aggression targets with six strikes the port of Hodeida” on Yemen’s western coast, also reporting “US-Israeli aggression on the Bajil district” in the same province.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to AFP that Israeli warplanes struck Yemen.
Earlier the Houthis’ Saba news agency said US strikes hit the capital Sanaa and the airport road, wounding 16 people according to the rebels’ health ministry.
Al-Masirah reported another three strikes in Sanaa and seven in the northern governorate of Al-Jawf.
The reports on Houthi media come after Israel said a missile fired from Yemen on Sunday struck inside the perimeter of Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv for the first time.
The Houthis claimed responsibility, saying they fired a “hypersonic ballistic missile” at Ben Gurion, Israel’s main international gateway.
The Houthis said they “will work to impose a comprehensive air blockade on the Israeli enemy by repeatedly targeting airports, most notably... Ben Gurion Airport.”
The missile gouged a wide crater in the ground near an airport parking lot, injuring six people and forcing airlines to suspend flights.
The Houthis, who control swathes of Yemen including Sanaa, have launched missiles and drones targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a tough response against the Houthis, as well as its main backer Iran, over the attack.
In a video published on Telegram before the reported attack on Hodeida, Netanyahu said Israel had “acted against” the Houthis in the past and “will act in the future.”
“It will not happen in one bang, but there will be many bangs,” he added, without elaborating.
On social media platform X, Netanyahu said Israel would also respond to Iran at “a time and place of our choosing.”
Iran on Monday denied supporting the attack, calling it an “independent decision” by the Yemeni rebels taken in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Reacting to Netanyahu’s threats, the Islamic republic warned it would retaliate against any attack on its territory.
“Iran underlines (its) firm determination... to defend itself,” the Iranian foreign ministry said, warning Israel and the United States of “consequences.”
An Israeli military spokesperson told AFP that Sunday’s attack was “the first time” that a missile has directly struck inside the airport perimeter.
An AFP journalist inside the airport during the attack said he heard a “loud bang” at around 9:35 am (0635 GMT), adding that the “reverberation was very strong.”
Flights resumed after being halted briefly, with the aviation authority saying on Sunday that Ben Gurion was “open and operational.”
Some international airlines have canceled flights, including SWISS which extended its suspension until Sunday.
US strikes on the Houthis began under former president Joe Biden, but have intensified under his successor Donald Trump.

OSLO: An Israeli plan to take over the distribution of humanitarian aid to Gaza at hubs controlled by the military is “fundamentally against humanitarian principles,” the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) told AFP on Monday.
Israel’s security cabinet said there was “currently enough food” in the territory which has been under full Israeli blockade since March 2, and approved overnight the “possibility of humanitarian distribution” in Gaza.
“We cannot and will not do something which is fundamentally against humanitarian principles,” Jan Egeland told AFP.
He said “the United Nations agencies, all other international humanitarian groups and NGOs have said no to be part of this idea coming from the Israeli cabinet and from the Israeli military.”
Israel has accused Hamas of diverting humanitarian aid — which Hamas denies — and said its blockade was necessary to pressure the militant group to release Israeli hostages.
Egeland said the Israeli government wanted to “militarise, manipulate, politicize the aid by allowing only aid to a few concentration hubs in the south, a scheme where people will be screened, where it’s a completely inoperable system.”
“That would force people to move to get aid, and it would continue the starvation of the civilian population,” he said, adding: “We will have no part in that.”
“If one side in a bitter armed conflict tries to control, manipulate, ration aid among the civilians on the other side, it is against everything we stand for,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the Israeli scheme “will mean large parts of Gaza, including the less mobile and most vulnerable people, will continue to go without supplies.”
International aid organizations as well as Palestinians in Gaza have for weeks warned of a dire humanitarian situation on the ground.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has said it has depleted its food stocks and that the 25 bakeries it supports in Gaza have closed due to a lack of flour and fuel.