Yemen’s Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, announced a drone attack on Israel on Wednesday as the group’s leaders vowed that the ceasefire deal with the US didn’t apply to operations against Israel in support of the Palestinians in Gaza.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said two drones targeted the Ramon Airport in southern Israel, and another drone targeted the city of Jaffa. The Israeli military reported that its forces downed only one drone that was coming from the east.
Saree also announced an attack on the US aircraft USS Harry Truman, which he said was “carried out before the American enemy announced the cessation of its aggression against our country.” He said that the attack resulted in the “downing” of a US F/A-18 fighter jet.
CNN reported that the fighter jet fell off the Harry Truman, marking the second time in recent weeks that the US lost a $60 million F/A-18 in the Red Sea during a Houthi attack. The Trump administration also lost at least seven $30 million MQ-9 Reaper drones to Yemeni air defenses.
Mohammed Abdulsalam, a senior Ansar Allah official, told Reuters on Wednesday that the ceasefire deal with the US “does not include Israel in any way, shape or form.”
Saree vowed that attacks on Israel and the blockade on Israeli shipping would continue until there’s a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory.
“We will continue to ban Israeli navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas, and to ban air traffic at Lod [Ben Gurion] Airport. Our operations will continue until the aggression against Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted,” Saree said. “We will remain faithful and persevere, blood for blood, with Gaza and Palestine until victory.”
President Trump on Tuesday commended the Houthis for their resilience under US attacks. “We take their word for it… We hit them very hard. They had a great capacity to withstand punishment,” he said. “You could say there’s a lot of bravery there.”
On April 10, Drop Site News published an interview with a senior Ansar Allah official who said the group was willing to stop attacking US warships if the US stopped bombing Yemen, which appears to be the deal the US eventually accepted in negotiations brokered by Oman. Drop Site reported on Wednesday that a source said the interview was “noted at high levels within the Trump administration.”
The Houthis stopped attacks on Israel and on Red Sea shipping when the short-lived Gaza ceasefire went into effect on January 19. After Israel violated the deal by imposing a total blockade on Gaza, the Houthis announced they would re-impose the blockade on Israeli shipping.
It was in response to that announcement that the Trump administration launched its bombing campaign in Yemen on March 15. Since then, the US has launched over 1,000 strikes on Yemen, killing more than 200 civilians.
