Yemen’s Houthis report 11 US airstrikes as regional tension spikes

By Ahmed Asmar

US warplanes launched 11 fresh airstrikes in Al-Jawf province in northern Yemen on Monday as regional tension continues to escalate over the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, the Houthi group said.

The Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV said eight airstrikes targeted Al-Hazm district in the province, while three others hit the Khab wa Ash Sha'af area.

No information was yet available about casualties or damage from the attacks.

The attacks came one day after a Houthi missile landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday, disrupting flight schedules and prompting several international carriers to cancel their Sunday flights to Tel Aviv. Israel has vowed to respond to the Houthi attack.

Yemen has faced an intensified US military campaign since mid-March, including around 1,300 air and naval strikes, resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties, according to the Houthi group.

The Houthis have targeted ships passing through the Red and Arabian seas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden since November 2023 in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where over 52,500 people have been killed in a brutal Israeli assault for more than 19 months, most of them women and children.

The group halted attacks when a Gaza ceasefire was declared in January between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, but resumed them after Israel's renewed airstrikes on Gaza in March.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.