Israel on Sunday carried out airstrikes on critical infrastructure of Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, AFP reported.
“In a large-scale air operation today, dozens of Air Force aircraft, including fighter jets, refuelling planes, and reconnaissance aircraft, attacked military-use targets of the Huthi terrorist regime in the Ras Issa and Hodeida areas of Yemen,” military spokesman Captain David Avraham said in a statement to AFP.
Israel’s attack comes a day after it intercepted a missile fired by Houthis from Yemen at the Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv.
Houthis had said the attack was timed to coincide with the arrival of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who returned to the country after addressing the United Nations General Assembly.
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The Israeli counterattack comes amid tensions in the Middle East, that have escalated after the Israel Air Force eliminated Iran-backed Hezbollah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah in targeted airstrikes on Beirut.
Houthi, also backed by Iran, mourned the killing of Nasrallah, the chief of its ally against Israel.
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On Sunday, Hezbollah confirmed that Israeli airstrikes killed Nabil Kaouk, another high-ranking leader of the Lebanese terrorist group.
The statement came hours after an Israeli airstrike on northeast Lebanon killed 11 people. Israel says it is continuing to carry out attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
Kaouk was deputy head of Hezbollah’s Central Council. He also served as Hezbollah’s military commander in south Lebanon from 1995 until 2010.
In another development, Israel on Sunday said that its military carried out a precise strike on Hamas, which was using the Umm al-Fahm school in the northern town of Beit Lahiya as a command-and-control center, without providing evidence.
Some 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced by the nearly yearlong war, with hundreds of thousands living in shuttered schools or squalid tent camps, AP reported.
