TEHRAN- The Yemeni armed forces have pledged greater and more powerful operations against the Israeli occupation following the deadly Israeli aggression at Yemen’s Hodeidah.

Sana’a said it has already struck the Israeli city of Eilat after the regime’s attacks on civilian sites in the Yemeni port city. 

Ansarullah’s Armed Forces declared it has carried out two qualitative operations in Eilat and the Red Sea, using ballistic missiles and drones, in support of the Palestinian people and the Gaza resistance. 

The Ansarullah Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Sare’e announced on TV that Yemeni missile forces carried out a major military operation targeting significant sites in Umm al-Rashrash (Eilat) with several ballistic missiles, confirming that the operation achieved its goals.

In a second joint operation, the Yemeni navy, the drone force, and the missile forces targeted the American ship Pumba in the Red Sea with several ballistic missiles and drones, causing direct damage to the ship.

In the televised address, Sare’e emphasized that the response to Israeli aggression “on our country is imminent and will be significant and great,” noting that these operations are in support of the Palestinian people and their fighters and in response to the American, British, and Israeli aggression against Yemen.

He also stressed that the Israeli attacks on Hodeidah “will not deter the great nation of Yemen from its firm stance on the plight of the Palestinian people.”

Sare’e reiterated that the Yemeni Armed Forces’ operations in the previously designated maritime areas against Israeli, American, and British ships, or those heading to occupied Palestinian ports, or dealing with the Israeli occupation entity, “will not stop until the aggression ceases and the blockade on the Palestinian people in Gaza is lifted.”

Sare’e also said, “We are preparing for a long war against the Israeli enemy until the aggression on Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted,” reiterating that “the area of occupied Jaffa (Tel Aviv) is an unsafe zone”. 

Late on Saturday, Israeli media reported alarm sirens in Eilat following “Yemen’s threats to strike Israel”. 

The Israeli army claimed to have intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Yemen using the Iron Dome system, while a drone was reportedly spotted in the area.

The military affairs correspondent for Israeli army radio stated that a ballistic missile from Yemen “takes about fifteen minutes to reach Israel, much less time than a drone that flies for hours”. 

The Israeli attacks targeted an oil refinery, leading to a massive fire that could be seen kilometers away. 

The Israeli attacks on Hodeidah left six civilians dead, 83 others injured and three missing, according to the health ministry in Sana’a.

Israeli media reported, citing American sources, that 25 F-35 fighter jets attacked targets in Hodeidah port in waves.

The deputy foreign minister of Sana’a, Hussein el-Ezzi, announced on Sunday that the electricity in Hodeidah has been fully restored to its pre-destruction status. 

Gideon Golber, the CEO of the Israeli Eilat port, has revealed that losses from the port’s operational disruption, following the Ansarullah operations, amount to approximately 50 million shekels 

(nearly $17 million), Israeli media reported. 

Additionally, the port’s operational management is preparing to lay off several workers this week.

Golber emphasized that “the port has been non-operational for eight months due to attacks, meaning it has no revenue.” 

The CEO also noted that a committee deliberated on the port’s status, acknowledging that Yemen has effectively blocked shipping to it.

Golber called for immediate government intervention, stressing that the port’s closure was not due to mismanagement but because coalition countries in the Red Sea “have lost control over it.”

Ansarullah has waged waves of attacks on the Israeli port city or blocked ships from trying to dock at Eilat. 

Two weeks ago, Sare’e announced a military operation targeting a “vital target” in occupied Umm al-Rashrash (Eilat) in cooperation with Islamic resistance in Iraq.

Israeli Channel 12 has also reported that there is “fear of a Yemeni response” following the aggression on Hodeidah port, noting the Israeli Air Force is on “high alert”. 

The Israeli Navy has also raised its alert level in the Eilat area amid rising tensions, according to the Hebrew newspaper Israel Hayom.

The Ansarullah leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, said on Sunday that the Israeli enemy’s choice of targets is part of the effort to attack the Yemeni economy “with the aim of harming our dear people and their livelihood”.

“The Israeli enemy wants to show its angry and fearful audience that it has achieved a significant accomplishment and dealt a painful blow to Yemen”

Al-Houthi said that Yemen’s support front for Gaza is “effective and influential”. 

He pointed out that Yemen’s “operational path from the beginning has been moving towards different stages, with each stage adding a new operational scope and advanced weapons for performing combat tasks.”

With the arrival of the tenth month, the Israeli enemy needs more pressure and deterrence to force it to stop its aggression, the Yemeni leader added. 

"In the fifth stage [of Yemen’s operations in support of Gaza], through the blessed operation of Yaffa, we moved to use a new weapon,” he noted. 

Ansarullah used the Yaffa drone to strike Tel Aviv on Friday, for the first time since October 7. 

“The Yaffa drone is an advanced drone with clear tactical and technical capabilities, a long range, and excellent destructive power exceeding any other drone,” Al-Houthi pointed out. 

“The arrival of the ‘Yaffa’ drone to a fundamental administrative center of the enemy entity was distressing and considered a new equation and stage,” he underlined. 

Al-Houthi also said “that the targeting of Yaffa [Tel Aviv] marks the beginning of the fifth stage of escalation and we consider it a new equation that will continue and be established by God’s will and support.”

“The breach was impactful on the Israeli enemy, bringing danger, anxiety, and threat to the heart of the entity. The threat was unexpected and unfamiliar in the Israeli reality from outside Palestine,” Al-Houthi highlighted. 

The Ansarullah leader concluded that this “drone is Yemeni-made and launched by Yemeni forces, not as some claim that it was made or launched from other countries.” 

Sources have told regional news outlets that the Israeli occupation regime “will lie and distort” information about the operations conducted by the Yemeni Armed Forces, saying observers should “await statements from Yemen that will reveal each operation, whether it targets the depths of the occupation entity or other maritime operations.”
 
The same sources stressed that “Yemen is patient,” underlining that the operations conducted by its armed forces “will continue in the coming days and months” if the Israeli aggression on Gaza does not stop.