Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will continue to “continue the task” of neutralizing the Houthis in Yemen, calling them “the terrorist arm of Iran,” moments after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the bombing of military targets in the country.
"We are in the Renaissance War," Netanyahu said in a video statement from the air base where, together with the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, and the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, he followed the bombings.
Israeli air forces launched an attack on Thursday “based on intelligence information” against infrastructure used by the Houthis at Sanaa airport, the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power plants and other positions in the ports of Hodeida, Salif and Ras Kanatib on the west coast, according to a military statement.
Netanyahu alluded to the fact that the bombing occurred on the second day of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which commemorates the resistance of the Maccabean Jews to the siege of the Greeks: “(We are) the modern Maccabean generation,” he said from the military base.
"We are determined to cut off Iran's terrorist arm," he added.
Israeli authorities routinely claim that the country is waging a war on seven fronts: against Palestinian militias in Gaza and the West Bank, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, pro-Iranian militias in Syria, Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iran itself, which is behind them all.
Standing alongside Netanyahu, the defense minister reiterated a message he often repeats in such circumstances: “Whoever attacks Israel, we will attack.”
“We will hunt down all Houthi leaders, we will hit them as we have done elsewhere,” he said, referring to the deaths of leaders of other groups this past year, whether Hamas chiefs Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar or Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Katz also said that “no one will be able to escape Israel’s long arm.”
The IDF, after confirming the attack on Yemen this afternoon, launched a veiled threat in similar terms, assuring that it will not hesitate to “to act at any distance against any threat to the State of Israel.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said in a separate statement shortly afterward that Israel "will not tolerate unprovoked attacks by a terrorist army operating 2.000 kilometers away."
“Israel will take all military and diplomatic measures it deems necessary to protect its security,” he added, just days after having instructed Israeli diplomatic missions to pressure members of the European Union to designate the Houthis as a “terrorist organisation.”
The military statement issued after the attack accused the Houthis of using the destroyed positions to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region, as well as serving as a gateway for senior Iranian regime officials.
With the attack, Israel claims to be responding to the Houthis, who “have repeatedly attacked the State of Israel and its citizens, including drone attacks and surface-to-surface missiles.”
The latest was yesterday afternoon, when a drone crashed in an open space in Israeli territory without causing any casualties, while in the early morning air defense systems intercepted a missile heading towards the center of the country.
In the evening, Netanyahu again warned the Yemeni group: “The Houthis will also learn what Hamas, Hezbollah, the regime of (ousted Syrian President Bashar al) Assad and others have learned, and this will also take time. “This lesson will be learned throughout the Middle East.”