At least 35 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Wednesday, the Iran-backed group's health ministry said, in the latest escalation between Israel and the Yemeni militants.
The Israel Defense Forces said its aircraft struck military targets in the capital Sanaa and in al-Jawf province, naming military camps, a fuel storage facility and what it called the Houthis' "military public relations headquarters" among the sites hit. The IDF said the strikes were carried out in response to recent missile and drone attacks on Israel.
The Houthi-run health ministry reported 28 people killed and 113 wounded in Sanaa and another seven killed and 18 injured in al-Jawf, adding that the toll could rise as rescue teams continued searching under rubble. Videos posted online showed plumes of black smoke over Sanaa and first responders searching through damaged buildings.
Israeli officials said their strikes targeted facilities used by the Houthis to plan and publicize attacks, including a department responsible for distributing propaganda and statements by Houthi leaders. The military said the camps had been used to plan assaults and transport operations linked to launches of unmanned aerial vehicles and surface-to-surface missiles toward Israeli territory.
In the early hours of Thursday, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen. The Houthis did not immediately comment on that launch, but one of the group's leaders warned that retaliation was inevitable. Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, said the strikes had failed and urged Israelis to "remain on high alert," saying the attack offered the movement "a greater opportunity to respond with full force."
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea denied that missile launch sites were hit and said the air defences had engaged Israeli aircraft. He charged that the strikes "targeted purely civilian targets," and state-aligned Al-Masirah television said buildings hit in Sanaa included a medical station in the city's southwest, the Moral Guidance Directorate's headquarters, and the offices of the newspapers 26 September and Yemen, causing casualties and extensive damage to nearby homes and shops. The channel also reported strikes on a government complex and a branch of the central bank in al-Hazm, al-Jawf province.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu characterized the strikes as part of Israel's wider campaign to deter attacks and punish those who strike Israeli territory. "We will continue to strike. Whoever strikes us, whoever attacks us — we will reach them," he said at an event in Bat Yam, citing earlier Houthi-launched assaults that included a drone strike on an Israeli airport that wounded one person.
The confrontation is part of a broader pattern since October 2023, when the Houthis began attacking Israel and international shipping in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, saying they acted in solidarity with Palestinians after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas. Houthi forces have controlled much of northwestern Yemen for roughly a decade after forcibly removing Yemen's internationally recognized government from the area, precipitating a civil war.
Israel has carried out repeated air strikes against Houthi positions in Yemen in response to hundreds of weapons launches over the past nearly two years, many intercepted but some causing damage and injuries. The United States and Britain have also conducted strikes in Houthi-controlled areas in retaliation for attacks on merchant vessels.
Last month, an Israeli strike in Sanaa killed Ahmed al-Rahawi, identified by the Houthis as the prime minister of their unilaterally declared government, along with several ministers. The latest raids follow a cycle of attacks and reprisals that officials on both sides frame as defensive or retaliatory.
There was no independent confirmation of the targets hit or the casualty figures. Humanitarian agencies and aid groups have repeatedly warned that intensified military activity in and around population centres in Yemen risks worsening an already severe humanitarian crisis for civilians.
The situation remains fluid, with both sides signaling the potential for further exchanges. Israeli and Houthi statements were issued through military communiqués and state media respectively; international responses and independent verification of the strikes were pending.