Israel faces retaliations after strikes on Houthi, Hezbollah targets

Beirut, July 21 – Yemen’s Houthi group vowed to “hit vital targets in Israel” while Lebanon’s Hezbollah retaliated with rockets after Israel had launched airstrikes on different areas in Yemen and Lebanon.

The Houthi group on Saturday vowed to retaliate against Israeli air strikes that destroyed oil storage and electric facilities, wounding nearly 80 people, in the Houthi-held Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, Xinhua news agency reported.

“We will not hesitate to hit vital targets in Israel,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said, reiterating that Tel Aviv will not remain a safe area.

“The Israeli enemy launched a brutal aggression on Hodeidah, targeting the power station, the port, and the fuel storages, all of which are civilian targets,” he said in a televised statement.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military said in a statement that its fighter jets targeted “military targets” of the Houthi militia, as a response to “the hundreds of attacks carried out against the State of Israel in recent months.”

The statement came after Houthi top negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam said the Israeli strikes would not stop the military group from targeting “Israeli cities and ships.”

Hodeidah residents said a big column of black smoke and fire at the scene could be seen from miles away. Fire trucks and ambulances rushed to the scene as authorities cordoned off the area near the Red Sea.

Saudi Arabia is not linked to or participating in the Israeli attack, the Times of Israel reported, citing Turki Al-Malki, the spokesman of the Saudi Defence Ministry.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition to support the Yemeni government forces in confronting the Houthi group.

Saudi Arabia will not allow its airspace to be infiltrated by any party, Al-Malki added.

The Israeli airstrikes came a day after the Houthis claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a building in Tel Aviv that killed a person and injured 10 others.

The Houthis have been targeting Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since last November to show solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Many shipping companies have since changed their routes to go around the southern tip of Africa to avoid drone and missile attacks.

Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Saturday, targeting a kibbutz for the first time in nine months in retaliation for an Israeli drone strike earlier in the day.

A few hours before Hezbollah’s attack, seven people, including four children, were injured when an Israeli drone strike hit a tent belonging to a displaced Syrian, and a car parked next to it, in the southern Lebanese village of Burj al-Muluk.

Later that night, Israeli warplanes targeted an ammunition warehouse belonging to Hezbollah in Lebanon’s southwest town of Adloun, wounding at least five citizens and completely demolishing the house, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua.