Israel conducted its third long-range airstrike on the terrorist Houthi militia in Yemen early Thursday morning, hours after the rebels fired a ballistic missile at Israel’s population centers that was intercepted outside Israeli airspace.
The ballistic missile was the seventh fired at Israel by the Houthis in recent weeks, in addition to five drone launches.
Sirens were heard just after 2:30 in the morning in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, due to the danger of shrapnel fragments continuing the missile’s trajectory and spreading out across the targeted area. No injuries were reported.
Israel responded almost immediately to the Houthis, according to a statement by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF):
A short while ago, following the approval of strike plans by the Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz, IAF fighter jets, with the direction of the Intelligence Directorate and the Israeli Navy, struck military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime on the western coast and in inland Yemen.
The Houthi terrorist regime has repeatedly attacked the State of Israel, including by attacking Israeli territory using UAVs and surface-to-surface missiles. Most of these projectiles were successfully intercepted.
The targets struck by the IDF were used by the Houthi forces for military purposes. The strikes degrade the Houthi terrorist regime, preventing it from exploiting the targets for military and terrorist purposes, including the smuggling of Iranian weapons to the region.
Over the past year, the Houthi terrorist regime has been operating with the direction and funding of Iran, and in cooperation with Iraqi militias in order to attack the State of Israel and Israeli civilians, undermine regional stability and disrupt global freedom of navigation.
The IDF is determined to continue operating against all threats posed to the citizens of the State of Israel, wherever necessary.
Israel’s Army Radio reported that Israel had struck targets in Sana’a, the capital city of Yemen, for the first time.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari issued a statement of his own in English for the international media:
Over the last 14 months, the Iran-backed Houthi terror regime in Yemen has launched hundreds of missile and UAV attacks against the State of Israel.
This happened again tonight. The Houthi terror regime fired a missile towards central Israel forcing millions of civilians to take cover in bomb shelters.
In the last two weeks only – the Houthis fired a drone that hit an apartment block in southern Israel, and on Sunday, they fired a long-range missile towards central Israel.
The Houthis have been carrying out attacks against Israel in violation of international law, and the Houthi regime is a threat to peace and security in the region.
Today, the IDF conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen – including ports and energy infrastructure in Sana’a, which the Houthis have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military actions. Israel will not hesitate to act in order to defend itself and its citizens from the Houthi attacks.
The Houthis are also targeting other countries- in the Middle East, the United States and other countries in the world.
With their attacks on international shipping vessels and roots in the Red Sea and other places, the Houthis have become a global threat.
Who is behind the Houthis? Iran.
The regime in Iran funds, arms and directs the Houthi’s terror activities.
As we have shown against other enemies in other arenas, we will continue to act against anyone- anyone in the Middle East that threatens the State of Israel, and we will defend the people of Israel.
The Houthis are the last Iranian proxy still launching regular attacks against Israel. Hamas in Gaza has been all but destroyed; Hezbollah has been pushed into a weak ceasefire in Lebanon; and Iraqi militias are silent, as is Iran itself.
Army Radio military correspondent Doron Kadosh said that the strike on Sana’a had been the furthest strike in the history of Israel, at over 2,000 kilometers — longer than the retaliation in October against Iran for its missile attacks.
He added that the decision by the Houthis to launch a ballistic missile might have been influenced by the fact that an Israeli attack on Yemen had been expected for days (as Breitbart News had noted earlier in the week. The Houthis may have wanted to project strength before they were hit by Israel. It was the third such Israeli operation against the Houthis, after one in July and one in September. The U.S. and its allies have also hit Houthi targets in recent weeks.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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