Houthis threaten to attack Israeli ports, gas fields after weekend strike on Hodeida
The Iran-backed Houthis are preparing to strike new sensitive targets in Israel and the region, according to sources from Yemen’s capital Sana’a quoted by the Lebanese Hezbollah-affiliated daily Al-Akhbar on Tuesday.
Sources close to the Yemeni militia quoted by Al-Akhbar said that in response to the Israeli retaliatory strike on the Houthi-controlled Hodeida port in western Yemen on Saturday, itself a response to a deadly Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv, Houthi military leaders have added new items to their “target bank.”
The Yemeni rebel group — in cooperation with other members of the so called Axis of Resistance of Iran-backed paramilitary groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria — was said to be planning to hit the Israeli Mediterranean ports of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Haifa, in addition to the Red Sea port of Eilat.
The Israeli gas fields in the Mediterranean were also reportedly in the Houthis’ crosshairs, as well as oil tankers transporting fuel from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to Israel through the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Houthis were also said to be planning to target maritime trade in the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, with the rebel group reportedly aiming to use long-range projectiles to target “enemy maritime trade” directed toward the Cape of Good Hope along African coasts.
The route is much longer than the one through the Suez Canal, but has become increasingly popular since the Houthis began targeting ships transiting through the Red Sea with alleged connections to Israel, the United States, or Britain.
The Yemeni terrorist group says it has been targeting ships in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza where Israel has been waging a war against Hamas since the terrorist organization’s unprecedented October 7 attack, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
The US and Britain have carried out retaliatory strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, but Saturday’s attack on Hodeida was the first time Israel has taken direct action against the organization since it began its attacks in October.
The Houthis also released a propaganda video on Tuesday showing what they say is the drone that was launched at Tel Aviv in the attack last week.
The so-called Jaffa drone struck a residential building in the central Israeli city early Friday, killing a man and wounding others.
The video shows a Jaffa drone in an exhibition, and ostensibly the moment the one that struck Tel Aviv was launched.
The IDF identified the drone as a modified Iranian-made Samad-3 drone.
The drone had been adjusted to have a much further range than normal, allowing it to make a trip of some 2,600 kilometers — flying over Africa and Egypt, and then some of the Mediterranean — to reach Israel from the west.
Source » msn.com
