US attacks Yemen after Houthi strike in Tel Aviv causes injuries

CAIRO – 22 December 2024: The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) forces announced on Saturday conducting airstrikes against what it called military targets operated by Yemen’s Houthis in Sanaa.

The attack comes after the Houthis announced on Saturday an attack on the residential Jaffa neighborhood of Tel Aviv with a hypersonic ballistic missile, which, according to Israeli emergency services, injured at least 16 people.

The Israeli army said it failed to shoot down the missile, which landed in a public park.

The US attack on Yemen also comes while the Houthis have repeatedly announced striking vessels linked to Israel in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in solidarity with the Palestinian people amid the Israeli war in Gaza.

CENTCOM announced targeting “a missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility” in the Yemeni capital, as well as “multiple Houthi one way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and an anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) over the Red Sea.”

CENTCOM said it conducted the strikes with the aim of disrupting and degrading Houthi operations, including attacks against US Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb, and Gulf of Aden.

The US command said the attack involved the American Air Force and Navy assets, including multiple supersonic combat aircraft F/A-18.

On Thursday, the Israeli army conducted deadly strikes on near the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Thursday, killing nine people and injuring three others, according to Houthi media official Nasruddin Amer.

The Israeli strikes hit the port of as-Salif and Ras Isa oil facility in Hodeidah as well as the Heyzaz and Dhahban power stations near Sanaa, according to the Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah TV.