Israel Strikes Yemen — ‘Houthi Terrorist Regime’ — for First Time

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Saturday that it had struck the “Houthi terrorist regime” in Yemen for the first time, launching a long-distance airstrike on the Al Hudaydah Port, targeting the origin of a drone that hit Israel Friday.

The attack came in response to a Houthi drone that reached Tel Aviv on Friday, killing one Israeli civilian and wounding eight others after slipping past Israeli air defenses due to what the IDF called “human error.”

Reports in Yemen emerged before Israel confirmed the attack. There were reports of casualties near the port.

In a statement, the IDF said:

A short while ago, 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.

There are no changes in the Home Front Command defensive guidelines. In the case of a change to the guidelines, we will update the public accordingly.

Details to follow.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the attack had reached its target 2,000 kilometers away from Israel, and that the “fires that are burning now in Yemen” are being seen in “the entire Middle East,” a warning to enemies of Israel.

The attack was reportedly carried out solely by Israeli forces, though the U.S. and other allies were reportedly alerted. Israel’s security cabinet held an unusual emergency meeting on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, during the attack.

Israel’s Army Radio said that Israel had destroyed both military targets and utilities that are used by the Houthis, such as fuel and electricity installations. The Times of Israel added that one of the goals of the attack was to disable the port through which Iran brings in weapons.

The Iran-backed Houthis have attacked Israel, without provocation, since the Hamas terror attacks of October 7. The two countries do not share a common border and have no reason for war other than Iran’s desire to destroy Israel.

The Houthis have also choked international shipping through the Red Sea by attacking vessels that pass through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait. The Biden administration’s Operation Prosperity Guardian has focused on defensive actions that have, thus far, failed to deter the Houthis or the Iranians.

Israel’s Army Radio pointed out that Israel’s attack would be particularly noteworthy because it had succeeded in hitting core Houthi infrastructure where others — including neighboring Saudi Arabia — had failed thus far.

President Biden removed the Houthis from a list of terrorist organizations upon reaching office — reversing an action taken by President Donald Trump — and waited years before putting them on a terrorist list again, despite their attacks on Saudi Arabia and Israel.

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.