GAZA CITY/SANAA: Israeli forces on Thursday resumed airstrikes on Yemen, targeting Houthi rebels who have been launching strikes against Israel in solidarity with Palestinians, while simultaneously pushing deeper into Gaza City. The intensified operations in Gaza have resulted in dozens of Palestinian deaths and displaced hundreds of thousands, leaving up to a million people trapped amidst the fighting.
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson stated that dozens of warplanes and air support units pounded alleged “command headquarters of the Houthi General Staff” and other buildings used by Houthi members, also known as Ansar Allah.
The strikes in Yemen follow a previous IDF bombing last week of a media complex in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, which reportedly killed 31 journalists and four other people, including a child. The Committee to Protect Journalists called the attack the world’s deadliest single attack on media workers in 16 years. This campaign also comes after an IDF airstrike last month assassinated Houthi officials, including Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi. U.S. forces, which have been conducting airstrikes in Yemen since 2002, have also carried out strikes that have killed and wounded hundreds of civilians.
The Israeli and U.S. strikes are in retaliation for Houthi missile and drone attacks on Israel and Red Sea shipping. The Houthis and Iran have been noted as the only actors globally to respond to Israel’s war on Gaza with military force.
The latest Israeli bombing of Yemen coincided with the progression of IDF tanks and troops deeper into Gaza City as part of Operation Gideon’s Chariots 2, an offensive stated to aim at conquering, occupying, and ethnically cleansing Palestinians from the coastal exclave.
Gaza officials reported dozens of Palestinians killed since dawn Thursday, including 25 aid-seekers. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that “intensified strikes on Gaza City, including on tents, residential buildings, [and] infrastructure continue to inflict heavy casualties.”
Among the victims of Thursday’s IDF strikes were at least 10 children and three women killed when the houses and tents in which they were sheltering were bombed, according to The Associated Press.
UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher stated that Palestinian children are being “killed while sleeping, playing, queuing for food and water, [and] seeking medical care.” He added that they have been “bombed, maimed, starved, burned alive, buried in the rubble of their homes, separated from their parents… scraping through the rubble for food, enduring amputations without anesthetic.”
