Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that his country had “delivered a powerful strike on numerous terror targets of the Houthi terror organisation in Sanaa”.
The IDF said in a statement that the targets included the Houthi military’s General Staff Command Headquarters, security and intelligence compounds, the Houthis’ “military public relations headquarters”, and military camps used to store weapons.
“The IDF will operate against the ongoing and repeated attacks of the Houthi terrorist regime against the State of Israel, will conduct additional offensive operations against the Houthi regime in the near future,” it added.
A separate statement from the Israeli military said an inquiry into Wednesday’s Houthi attack on Eilat had suggested that the drone launched from Yemen was “detected relatively late, and that warning sirens were activated in accordance with protocol.
“Interception attempts were made using the Iron Dome [air defence system], but were unsuccessful. The cause for that has been identified, and corrective measures were implemented.”
Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Israeli forces have intercepted more than 98% of the drones launched towards Israel by the Houthis, according to the IDF.
The Houthis’ military spokesman said the attack was a “response to the crimes of genocide and the dangerous escalation carried out by the Israeli enemy against our people in the Gaza Strip”.
On 10 September, four days after a Houthi drone attack on Eilat’s Ramon airport wounded one person, the Israeli military carried out a series of strikes in Sanaa and al-Jawf province that killed 35 people, according to the Houthi-run health ministry.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said last week that 31 journalists and media support workers were among those killed in Sanaa and that the incident constituted the deadliest single attack on the press worldwide in 16 years.
Yemen’s September 26 newspaper said all but one of them had worked in its office or the headquarters of the government’s Moral Guidance Directorate, which were both bombed.
The IDF said at the time that it had targeted the “Houthi Public Relations Department”.