The Israeli Air Force was on heightened alert Sunday for potential missile and drone attacks by the Houthis in Yemen, as the White House said it targeted the group’s leaders in heavy strikes and vowed to continue to do so.
The level of alert was already raised by the IAF last week, after the Iran-backed group threatened to resume attacks on Israel.
The Houthis halted their attacks on Israel and global shipping routes when a ceasefire took effect in Gaza in January. But the rebel group announced last week that it would resume them until Israel lifted its blockade of aid to the Strip, which it enacted on March 2 after the end of phase 1 of the ceasefire-hostage release deal.
The White House said Sunday that US strikes killed “multiple” Houthi leaders in Yemen, adding that Iran was “put on notice” to stop backing the rebel group and its attacks on Red Sea shipping.
The airstrikes on Saturday “actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out,” National Security Adviser Michael Waltz told ABC News.
“We just hit them with overwhelming force and put Iran on notice that enough is enough,” he said in a separate appearance on Fox News.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday that the US would conduct “unrelenting” strikes against the Houthis until the rebel group ceases its military actions targeting US assets and global shipping.
Speaking on Fox News, Hegseth said the campaign was a response to the scores of attacks the Houthis have launched on ships since November 2023 and served as a warning to Iran to stop backing the group.
“This will continue until you say, ‘We’re done shooting at ships. We’re done shooting at assets,’” Hegseth said.
The Iran-backed rebel group vowed to meet “escalation with escalation” after the wave of US strikes, which killed at least 31 people and wounded 101, “most of whom were children and women,” according to Houthi health ministry spokesperson Anis Al-Asbahi.
Footage on Houthi media showed children and a woman among those being treated in a hospital emergency room, including a dazed girl with blackened legs wrapped in bandages.
One father of two, who gave his name as Ahmed, told AFP his “house shook, the windows shattered, and my family and I were terrified.”
