The US continued its daily bombing of Yemen on Thursday as the Houthis fired more missiles at Israeli territory.
Yemen’s SABA news agency reported four US airstrikes in the Hodeidah province, which is located on the Red Sea. It’s unclear if there were any casualties in the latest US strikes. A day earlier, US strikes hit a residential area in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, reportedly wounding seven women and two children.
The US airstrikes were reported around the same time the Israeli military said that it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, the second Houthi attack within a day. The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, restarted missile attacks on Israel after the Israeli military resumed its massive bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip, massacring hundreds of Palestinians.
According to the Israeli news site Ynet, the US has asked Israel not to respond to the Houthis attacks and urged that Israel leave the response to the US military.
While US officials have framed the bombing campaign in Yemen as a way to protect the US military and American shipping, it was really launched in response to the Houthis saying they would reimpose its blockade on Israeli shipping over Israel imposing a total blockade on Gaza, a major violation of the ceasefire deal signed in January.
The Houthis had ceased their attacks once the Gaza ceasefire went into effect on January 19 and had not launched any until after the US restarted its bombing campaign on Saturday, March 15. The first barrage of US airstrikes killed 53 people in Yemen, including women and children.
Since then, the Houthis have claimed several attacks on the US aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman, which US officials have downplayed, saying they were easily intercepted.
President Trump is blaming the Houthis attacks on Iran even though US officials have acknowledged that Ansar Allah acts independently and is unlikely to take orders from Tehran. The Houthis have said they would not “dial down” operations in response to US military pressure or appeals from Iran.
President Trump is threatening the Houthis with “annihilation,” but a year-long US bombing campaign launched by President Biden from January 204 to January 2025 did not stop the Houthis, and a brutal US-backed Saudi-led war on Yemen from 2015 to 2022 also failed to remove the group from power.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said early Friday that the Yemeni attacks on Israel and the blockade on Israeli shipping won’t stop until “the aggression against Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted.” He said the operations “will not be halted no matter how long the American aggression continues.”
