Houthis say one dead in Israeli air strikes on Yemen's Hodeidah port

Attacks come a day after Houthi missile fell near Ben Gurion airport outside Tel Aviv

Israeli air strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah on Monday killed one person and wounded at least 35, the Houthi group said, a day after the Iran-aligned rebels fired a missile that landed near Israel's main airport.

The Israeli military said on social media that it struck targets in and around the Hodeidah seaport “in response to repeated attacks by the Houthi terrorist regime”.

The port lies about 2,000km from Israel and is the second-largest in the Red Sea after Aden. The Houthis control Yemen's capital Sanaa and the country's north-west, including much of the Red Sea coastline.

Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV reported six strikes in Hodeidah on Yemen's western coast, blaming "US-Israeli aggression". It also said there were strikes on Bajil district in the same province.

The bombing killed at least one person and injured 35 people, the Saba news agency said, citing the Houthi-run Health Ministry.

At least 21 people were injured in an attack on a cement factory in Bajil, the ministry added.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed to retaliate after a missile attack by the Houthis hit the perimeter of Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, damaging a road, vehicles, and injuring several people. The incident was a rare failure of Israel's air defence systems.

“Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport at a time and place of our choosing,” Mr Netanyahu had said.

Most aerial attacks from Yemen against Israel have been intercepted, although a drone hit Tel Aviv last year. Sunday's missile strike was the first Israel failed to intercept in a series of projectiles fired since March.

The Houthis have been firing at Israel and attacking shipping in the Red Sea in what they say is a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians over the war in Gaza.

In a televised statement on Sunday, Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree warned airlines that Ben Gurion was “no longer safe for air travel”.

The Houthi missile led to a brief suspension of flights at the airport. Footage showed smoke rising from the impact site near an airport building.

Airlines including Wizz Air and Lufthansa suspended flights in response to the attack, which Israel's airport authority said was the first to strike so close to the terminal and runways. The Israeli military said "several attempts" had been made to intercept it.

The Houthis on Monday called on all airlines to cancel flights to Israeli airports "to preserve the safety of aircraft and passengers". It said the group would be repeatedly targeting the airports for an indefinite period.

Houthi official Abdul Qader Al Mortada said in a post on X that Israel should wait for the "unimaginable".

Meanwhile, an oil company run by the Houthis announced that it has begun operating an emergency system for supplying cars with fuel, owing to difficulties in unloading cargo at the oil port of Ras Isa.

Last month, US air strikes on the Ras Isa fuel port killed at least 74 people in one of the deadliest American attacks on Houthi assets so far.