The Israeli Air Force on Sunday afternoon published video footage of Saturday’s “Operation Long Arm,” in which IAF fighter jets attacked a series of terrorist targets in Yemen’s Houthi-held port city of Hodeidah.
The military released cockpit footage showing the apparent destruction of cranes and an oil terminal used by the Iranian-backed terrorist group.
“We see the cranes,” one of the pilots who participated in the attack can be heard saying, before another confirms, “Everything is dismantled.”
The Israel Defense Forces also published a video showing the fighter jets refueling during the 2,250-mile round trip to western Yemen, as well as footage of the planes landing after the mission.
In a separate audio clip released by the Israeli military, IAF head Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar can be heard telling the pilots on their way back to base, “To all who took part in the mission, well done on the attack. We are very proud of you. Have a safe journey home.”
The IAF confirmed that it struck “dual-use infrastructure used for terrorist activities, including energy infrastructures,” as part of Saturday’s attack, which came after a Houthi suicide drone killed one Israeli civilian and wounded several others in Tel Aviv the previous day.
The strikes appeared to be the first on Yemeni soil since the terrorist group joined the war against Israel in support of Hamas last year.
“From the beginning of the war, I made it clear that Israel would harm anyone who harms us,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in public remarks on Saturday night. “Accordingly, earlier today, I convened the Security Cabinet and asked it to support my proposal to attack the Houthi targets in Yemen.”
Netanyahu said the strikes were a “direct response to the drone attack that killed an Israeli citizen and wounded several others. It also followed the Houthi’s aggression against the State of Israel since the start of the war. Over the past eight months, the Houthis have launched hundreds of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones towards Israel.”
An initial IDF probe has concluded that “human error” by air traffic control operators led the military on Friday morning to not classify the Houthi drone as an aerial threat and intercept it.
According to the IAF investigation, the explosive UAV flew from western Yemen over the Red Sea area, reaching Eritrea, before flying north over Sudan and Egypt and reaching the Mediterranean Sea. The drone then approached Israeli airspace from the west.
According to the probe, the drone was in the air for roughly 16 hours, flying at a speed of between 80 and 100 knots, or 92-115 miles per hour.
Reports added that the Air Force was preoccupied at the time with tracking a suicide drone launched by Iran-backed militias from Iraq and that the IAF’s focus had mainly been on targets approaching Israel from the north, east and south, and less so from the west.
On Sunday morning, the IDF’s Arrow 3 anti-missile defense system intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis from Yemen. The surface-to-surface missile was downed outside of Israeli airspace, but air-raid sirens were activated in Eilat due to the risk of falling shrapnel.
Since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, the Houthis have fired several missiles and drones at the Jewish state, the great majority of which were intercepted by Israeli, U.S. or Saudi forces or missed their targets.
The Houthis since mid-November have also carried out many drone and missile attacks on ships in the Red Sea, in addition to numerous acts of piracy against commercial and military vessels.
The Iran-backed terrorist organization’s official slogan is “Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse the Jews, Victory to Islam.”