Yemen's Houthis on Sunday responded to Israel's airstrikes by promising a long war and ordering Israeli civilians to "immediately" evacuate Tel Aviv for their own "safety" and head to Ben Gurion Airport with their passports in hand.
BREAKING 🚨: Yemen designated Tel Aviv as an unsafe zone and encourages Israelis to evacuate. Unlike Gaza they aren’t locked in so anyone left will be taking their lives into their own hands. pic.twitter.com/JBqxfqJzmI
A Houthi spokesman said they've begun the "fifth phase" of their escalation to stop the Gaza genocide.
🚨BREAKING: Ansarallah Commander Sayyed Abdulmalik Badr El-Din Al-Houthi announced the start of the Yemeni Armed Forces' fifth phase with the Yaffa operation, using the long-range Yaffa drone launched from Yemen. He noted that Palestinian resistance leaders chose the drone's… pic.twitter.com/4ka4SO8JYy
Mohammed Abdulsalam, the head spokesman for Yemen's Houthi movement, promised Sunday that there are "no red lines" in the response by the Yemeni armed faction to an attack carried out by the U.S.-backed Israel.
[...] Abdulsalam, speaking to Al-Jazeera, said the Houthis would continue to attack Israel and would not abide by any rules of engagement in its response. His quotes were also carried by the Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah network.
"The confrontation with the Zionist enemy will be open and without borders. We will not adhere to any rules of engagement with the Zionist enemy," Abdulsalam said. "There are no red lines in our response to the Zionist aggression, and the Israelis must expect our response at every moment."
Abdulmalik Badr al-Din al-Houthi, the commander of the Houthi movement, said in a televised address that the Houthis "are happy with the direct battle with the Israeli enemy."
"The Israeli enemy wants to portray to its angry and frightened audience from the scenes of [Hodeidah strike] that it has accomplished a great achievement and dealt a painful blow to Yemen," he said.
He criticized those who argue a talking point common in American and Israeli political circles that the Houthis are backed by Iran and that supporting Palestinians benefits Iran.
"The Israeli aggression against our country will contribute to a greater escalation of our operations against it and to the development of our capabilities as well," he said. "The enemy will lose and incur more dangers upon itself."
[...] The Yemeni Health Ministry said that the Israeli aggression "is being carried out in coordination with the United States" and "the complicity of some Arab countries that betrayed the Palestinian cause and opened their airspace to the Zionist aircraft to carry out its cowardly strikes."
"Yemen will remain free, dignified, and unbreakable, and a permanent thorn in the throat of the Zionists, Americans, and reactionary Arab regimes," the Yemeni Health Ministry said.
"The Yemeni people, who have endured years of aggression and siege, cannot be defeated and will continue their struggle and fight without retreat."
The Houthis brought the Saudis to their knees and refused to back down throughout seven years of Saudi/US bombings.
These are a people willing and eager to die for what they believe in.
Yemeni scholars and former American officials who study the country were nearly uniform in their assessments that the Israeli strikes would do little harm to the Houthis. Instead, they said, the attack is likely to exacerbate suffering in Yemen, which is already experiencing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises after a decade of war. The bombs hit a port that more than 20 million Yemenis depend on.
“The target of the strike does more to hurt the average Yemeni than the Houthis’ ability to launch attacks on the Red Sea or Israel,” said Adam Clements, a retired U.S. Army attaché for Yemen. “Hitting a radar site, a known launch site or another military target could disrupt Houthi capabilities for a few days more than the port.”
The Houthis, an Iran-backed militia, took over Yemen’s capital in 2014 and then swept through much of the country. A Saudi-led coalition, aided by American military assistance and weapons, began a military intervention in an attempt to depose the militia and restore an internationally recognized government.
The Houthis not only survived the grinding war that ensued but also thrived, creating an impoverished quasi state that they rule with an iron fist. Hudaydah was a site of fierce fighting during that war, as the Saudi-led coalition tried to wrest control of the strategic port city from the Houthis. But they were forced to pull back under international pressure as Yemen descended into near famine.
Hisham Al-Omeisy, a Yemeni political analyst who was imprisoned by the Houthis in 2017, said that the Israeli strikes “will not deter nor put a dent on Houthi operations.”
The militia has long framed its narrative around opposition to Israel and the United States and has “always wanted to drag Israel into a direct confrontation,” he said.
As a result, an Israeli attack gives Houthi leaders an opportunity to legitimize their claim of being the defenders of Arabs and Muslims, bolstering their recruitment and their grip on power, Mr. Al-Omeisy said.
The Hudaydah port is controlled by the Houthis and is a key source of tax revenue for the group. But it is also a vital piece of infrastructure that more than 20 million Yemenis who reside in the Houthi-controlled north rely on for aid, food imports and other goods.
The Israeli strikes hit a power station as well as gas and oil depots around the port, according to a Houthi spokesman and two regional officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Rebuilding those structures is likely to be costly and time-consuming in a country where so much infrastructure has already been destroyed, said Mohammed Albasha, a senior Middle East expert at Navanti Group, a research organization. He predicted “severe fuel shortages throughout northern Yemen” that could hurt essentials like diesel generators for hospitals.
And damaging the power station in summer, when temperatures can surpass 100 degrees, “will further exacerbate the suffering of the local population,” he said.
[...] Admiral Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, said in a televised statement on Saturday night that the forces had “no intention of attacking the Yemeni people.”
They struck the area around the port because “it is a supply route for the transfer of Iranian weapons from Iran to Yemen and a significant source of income for Houthi terrorism,” he said.
And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a statement that Hudaydah was “not an innocent port.” The drone attack on Tel Aviv on Friday showed that offensive action was necessary to “curtail the Houthis,” he said.
Yemen's Houthis on Sunday responded to Israel's airstrikes by promising a long war and ordering Israeli civilians to "immediately" evacuate Tel Aviv for their own "safety" and head to Ben Gurion Airport with their passports in hand.