Agencies
Sana’a
Houthis have no "red lines” for responding to Israeli airstrikes on the Red Sea port of Hudaydah in western Yemen, the movement’s spokesperson warned on Sunday.
"There are no ‘red lines’ in our response to the Zionist aggression,” Mohammed Abdessalam told Al Jazeera news channel.
Israel launched unprecedented airstrikes on the port of Hudaydah on Saturday, killing at least six people and injuring more than 80 others.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry warned Israel and the United States that the two would be held responsible for any regional spillover.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels vowed in fall to attack any ships associated with Israel until it halted military actions in the Gaza Strip. The attacks prompted the United States to form a multinational coalition to protect shipping in the area of the Red Sea, as well as to strike Houthi targets on the ground.
"The Israeli aggression against civilian assets in the Hudaydah governorate left six people dead, three missing and 83 others injured,” the Houthi-run health ministry said in a statement shared by pro-Houthi Al Masirah TV.
The Israeli military claimed responsibility for the unprecedented strike on Saturday, saying it came in retaliation for attacks on Israel.
A security source in Yemen told Sputnik initially that two people had been killed and three injured. The strikes hit a power plant and set fire to oil facilities at the port.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that the Jewish state was taking efforts to explain strikes on Yemen, which he claimed were in retaliation for Iran’s support for Houthi rebels.
"The [Foreign Ministry] apparatus is engaging with countries and organisations worldwide to emphasize the importance and necessity of Israel’s action against the Houthis in Yemen, and to highlight Iran’s direct responsibility for the Houthi terror group’s aggression against Israel and international shipping routes,” Katz said on social media.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry warned Israel and the United States on Sunday that Tehran would hold the two responsible for any regional spillover from attacks on Yemen and Gaza.
"The Zionist regime and its supporters, including the US government, are directly responsible for the dangerous and unpredictable consequences of the continuation of crimes in Gaza as well as the adventuristic attacks on Yemen,” the ministry quoted spokesman Nasser Kanaani as saying.
Kanaani condemned Israel’s unprecedented airstrikes on the western Yemeni port city of Hudaydah, saying Israel risked unleashing a wider war in the Middle East. Iran sees Israel’s continuing siege of the Gaza Strip and mass killings of civilians as "the main root-cause” for tensions in the region, the spokesman said, adding that there could be no prospect of peace for the Middle East as long as Israel pressed on with its Gaza offensive.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Foreign Ministry expressed "great concern” on Sunday over Israeli airstrikes on the Yemeni port of Hudaydah and called on Israel and Houthis to exercise restraint.
"The Ministry calls on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and to distance the region and its people from the dangers of war. It also calls on the international community and active influential parties to fulfil their responsibilities to end conflicts in the region,” the statement read.
The ministry said it was "following with great concern the developments of the military escalation in Yemen.”
The Israeli attack on the port aggravates tensions in the region and undermines the efforts to end the war in Gaza, it warned.