Smoke rises from a building hit by an Israeli strike in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on July 20, 2024

Yemen's Huthi rebels promised a "huge" retaliation against Israel on Sunday following a deadly strike on the port of Hodeida, as violence sparked by the Gaza war gripped the region.

Israel bombed the Palestinian territory, Lebanon and Yemen in quick succession this week in response to attacks from Iran-backed militant groups.

Despite Washington asserting that a deal to end more than nine months of devastating war between Israel and Gaza rulers Hamas was near the "goal line", the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen as it pressed on with its offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Dozens have been killed since Saturday across Gaza, the civil defence agency said, including in strikes on homes in the central Nuseirat and Bureij areas and displaced people near southern Khan Yunis.

Residents said a major operation was underway in the Saudi district west of Rafah in the south, reporting heavy artillery and clashes.

The deadly strikes in Gaza came hours after Hezbollah and its ally Hamas said they fired at Israeli positions from south Lebanon, while Yemen's Huthi rebels vowed to respond to Israeli warplanes hitting a key port.

On Sunday, Huthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the rebel's  "response to the Israeli aggression against our country is inevitably coming and will be huge."

- Fire still raging -

The fire left raging by the strikes on rebel-held Hodeida port "is seen across the Middle East and the significance is clear," Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Saturday.

The Huthis control swathes of Yemen, including much of its Red Sea coast, while the internationally recognised government has withdrawn to Aden on the south coast.

Detailing the first strikes claimed by Israel in Yemen, Gallant warned of further operations if the Huthis "dare to attack us" after a rebel drone strike killed one in Tel Aviv on Friday.

In Hodeida, three people were killed and 87 wounded, health officials said in a statement carried by Huthi media.

Firefighters struggled to contain the massive blaze caused by the strike on Hodeida, with a port employee saying fuel storage tanks and a power plant were still on fire on Sunday.

Following the strikes, the Israeli military said on Sunday it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen towards the Red Sea resort town of Eilat. Saree said the rebels had fired ballistic missiles towards the port city.

- Netanyahu travels to Washington -

The trio of militant groups has vowed to keep up attacks on Israel until a truce ends the violence in Gaza, which lies in ruins, with most residents forced to flee their homes.

The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza, including 42 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's military retaliation to wipe out Hamas has killed at least 38,983 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

The war has also unleashed hunger and health crises in Gaza, with Israel and the United Nations trading blame for vital aid supplies failing to reach those in need.

After the detection of poliovirus in Gaza sewage, though no individual cases, the World Health Organization said there were "monumental" constraints to mounting a timely response.

WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said Friday the agency believes many more diseases are "spreading out of control" inside Gaza.

The months-long war has also brought Israelis to the streets, sometimes in their tens of thousands, focused on securing the release of the remaining hostages.

"Bring them home," demonstrator Ofira Azrieli said Saturday in Tel Aviv, appealing to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The premier is due to address US lawmakers Wednesday in Washington, where he will be under pressure to reach a ceasefire with Hamas.

His office announced that he will meet US President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

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Israel's Yemen strike will embolden Huthis: analysts

Israel's first attack on Yemen's Huthis, who have defied months of strikes by the United States and Britain, will likely only embolden the rebels, analysts say.

Saturday's strike on the port city of Hodeida, which the rebels say killed six people and triggered a massive fire, will provide the Huthis with "political capital", said Maged Al-Madhaji, co-founder of the Sanaa Centre for Strategic Studies think tank.

"They legitimise Huthi claims that they are waging a war with Israel," which could widen the rebel's appeal amid growing anger in Yemen over the Gaza war, he told AFP.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October, the Huthis have positioned themselves as a key member of Tehran's regional network of allies, which includes armed groups in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

They have launched nearly 90 attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November and on Friday, a Huthi drone attack breached Israel's intricate air defences, killing one person in Tel Aviv, triggering Israel's strike on Hodeida.

Hours after the Hodeida attack, hundreds of Yemenis took to the streets of the rebel-controlled capital Sanaa, chanting - "death to America, death to Israel" -- as they waved Palestinian flags.

"For the rebels, these attacks serve as a powerful propaganda tool. They can rally their supporters by framing themselves as defenders against a new external aggressor," said Afrah Nasser, non-resident fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC think tank.

"This can attract new recruits and solidify their base."

- 'Growing notoriety' -

The rebels have already withstood repeated US and British strikes, aimed at deterring Huthi attacks on shipping, since January.

Gregory Johnsen, associate director of the Institute for Future Conflict at the US Air Force Academy, said that the Huthis "want nothing more than to be seen fighting the 'American-Zionist' alliance."

In a social media post, the Yemen expert said "this helps them domestically, by intertwining Huthi goals with the Palestinian cause, which is very popular in Yemen."

It also "mutes domestic dissent and neutralises local rivals", he said.

The Huthis seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene the following year to prop up the internationally-recognised government.

Nearly a decade of war has failed to weaken the rebels who control large swathes of the country, including much of its Red Sea coast.

"The past decade of internationalised civil war in Yemen demonstrates that the Huthi leadership is undeterred by military strikes," said Elisabeth Kendall, a Yemen expert at the University of Cambridge

"The Huthis will be emboldened by their growing notoriety and relish their engineered status as defenders of Palestine," she told AFP.

- Fuel shortages -

Hodeida's port, a vital entry point for fuel imports and international aid for rebel-held areas of Yemen, had remained largely untouched through the war.

Andreas Kreig, a military analyst and senior lecturer in security studies at King's College London, said Israel's strike "won't significantly erode the Huthi supply chain" of weapons.

"Component parts for missiles can be delivered along various routes and do not require massive port facilities," he told AFP, adding that "Iran has highly diversified supply chains and will find different routes" to deliver weapon components that can be assembled domestically.

The Huthis, however, will not emerge unscathed from the Israeli attack, which could hamper future fuel imports and has already sparked fears of shortages amid a severe financial crunch.

The strike, which destroyed storage tanks, "will result in severe fuel shortages across northern Yemen, affecting critical services like diesel generators for hospitals," said Mohammed Albasha, senior Middle East analyst for the US-based Navanti Group.

"Additionally, the damage to the power station in Hodeida, coupled with the blistering summer heat, will significantly worsen the suffering of the local population," he told AFP, adding that reconstruction would "be both costly and challenging."

Nicholas Brumfield, a Yemen expert, said the attack is "going to have dire humanitarian effects on the millions of ordinary Yemenis living in Huthi-held Yemen."

It will drive up "prices for not just fuel but anything carried by truck," he said on social media.

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Yemen's Houthis say they fired missiles at Israel's Eilat

Sanaa, Yemen

Yahya Saree, Houthi military spokesperson

“The missile forces of the Yemeni armed forces carried out a qualitative military operation that targeted important targets in the Umm Al-Rashrash (Eilat) area south of occupied Palestine, using a number of ballistic missiles, and achieved its goals successfully by the grace of Allah.”

“The Yemeni armed forces also confirm that the response to the Israeli aggression on our country is inevitable and will be great and mighty, Allah willing.”

Israel said earlier on the same day that its air defenses intercepted a surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen.

Israeli fighter jets struck Houthi military targets near Yemen's Hodeidah port on Saturday, (July 20) killing at least three people and wounding 87, a day after a drone launched by the Iranian-backed group hit Israeli economic hub Tel Aviv.

The Houthis' Supreme Political Council said there would be an "effective response" to the strikes. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the Houthis "will not hesitate to strike vital targets of the Israeli enemy."

The strike on Yemen, which Israeli officials said came after more than 200 Houthi attacks on Israel, underlined fears that the Gaza war, triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, could spiral into a regional conflict.

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