Israeli navy attacks rebel-held Yemeni port city of Hodeida, a first in the conflict

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Israeli navy attacked docks in Yemen’s rebel-held port city of Hodeida on Tuesday, likely damaging facilities that are key to aid shipments to the hungry, war-wracked nation.

The Israeli military said navy missile ships conducted the strikes, the first time its forces have been involved in attacks against the Houthi rebels.

Tuesday’s attack comes as the Houthis have repeatedly launched missiles and drones targeting Israel during its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Nasruddin Amer, the deputy head of the Houthis’ media office, wrote on the social platform X that the attack targeted docks in Hodeida. He claimed the attack had no significant impact on the group’s operations.

“It has no effect even on the morale of our people, who take to the streets weekly … in support of Gaza,” he said.

Late Monday, Israel issued online warnings to Yemenis to evacuate from Ras Isa, Hodeida and al-Salif ports over the Houthis’ alleged use of seaports for attacks.

“The port is used to transfer weapons and is a further example of the Houthi terrorist regime’s cynical exploitation of civilian infrastructure in order to advance terrorist activities,” the Israeli military said in a statement Tuesday.

Hodeida also is the main entry point for food and other humanitarian aid for millions of Yemenis since the war began when the Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned his country’s “long arm in the air and at sea will reach everywhere.”

“We warned the Houthi terror organization that if they continue to fire at Israel they will face a powerful response and enter a naval and air blockade,” he said.

Already, Israel has destroyed all the aircraft used by Yemen’s state carrier, Yemenia, in strikes on Sanaa International Airport.

The Houthis have been launching persistent missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

From November 2023 until January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The Houthis paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the U.S. launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March. President Donald Trump paused those attacks just before his trip to the Mideast, saying the rebels had “capitulated” to American demands.

Early Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on X that U.S. Navy ships had traveled through the Red Sea and its Bab el-Mandeb Strait “multiple times in recent days” without facing Houthi attacks.

“These transits occurred without challenge and demonstrate the success of both Operation ROUGH RIDER and the President’s Peace Through Strength agenda,” Hegseth wrote ahead of facing Congress for the first time since sharing sensitive military details of America’s military campaign against the Houthis in a Signal chat.

It’s unclear how the Houthis will respond now that an attack has come from the sea, rather than the air, from the Israelis.

Meanwhile, a wider, decadelong war in Yemen between the Houthis and the country’s exiled government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, remains in a stalemate.

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Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.