Tel Aviv strikes Yemen's rebel-held capital, port city after Houthi attack targets Israel

A series of intense Israeli airstrikes shook Yemen's rebel-held capital and a port city early on Thursday and killed at least nine people, officials said, shortly after a Houthi missile targeted central Israel.

- Associated Press

DUBAI:

Thursday's strikes risk further escalating conflict with the Iranian-backed Houthis, whose attacks on the Red Sea corridor have drastically impacted global shipping. The rebels have, so far, avoided the same level of intense military strikes that have targeted Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, fellow members of Tehran's self-described "Axis of Resistance."

Israel's military said that it conducted two waves of strikes in a preplanned operation that began early on Thursday and involved 14 fighter jets. The military said the first wave of strikes targeted Houthi infrastructure at the ports of Hodeida, Salif and the Ras Isa oil terminal on the Red Sea.