Netanyahu appeals for patience as IDF prepares to hit Houthis hard

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israelis on Sunday to be “patient” as Jerusalem prepares to respond forcefully to attacks by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists.

“We will take forceful, determined and sophisticated action,” the prime minister vowed after a Houthi ballistic missile evaded the Israel Defense Forces’ aerial defense systems and hit a playground in Tel Aviv’s Jaffa quarter overnight Friday, lightly wounding 16 people.

“Even if it takes time, the result will be the same—as it has been with the other terrorist arms,” he said, in reference to previous IDF operations against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“Just as we have acted forcefully against the terror arms of Iran’s axis of evil, so too will we act against the Houthis,” Netanyahu said. “However, in this case, we are not acting alone. Like us, the U.S. and other countries see the Houthis not only as a threat to international maritime navigation, but to the international order as well.

“what I ask of you, citizens of Israel, is to be patient, to continue showing the same resilience that you have shown up until now, and to strictly follow the [IDF] Home Front Command directives,” he said.

Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck a series of terrorist targets in Houthi-held territory in Yemen before dawn on Dec. 19, after a previous Houthi missile attack hit a school building in Ramat Gan, just east of Tel Aviv.

According to the IDF, the IAF retaliatory strikes were carried out in two waves by 14 fighter jets, refuelers and spy planes. The jets were already en route when the Houthis fired the missile around 2:35 a.m.

Following last week’s strikes, Netanyahu said that the Houthis and their Iranian backers “are learning—and will learn the hard way—that whoever harms Israel will pay a very heavy price for it.

“Last night, they attacked a school in Ramat Gan,” the Israeli leader said in the remarks published by the Prime Minister’s Office, adding that “they are not only attacking us—they are attacking the entire world.

“They are attacking international shipping and trade routes. Therefore, when Israel acts against the Houthis, it operates on behalf of the entire international community,” Netanyahu said. “The Americans understand this well, and so do many others.

“After Hamas, Hezbollah and the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis are almost the last remaining arm of Iran’s evil axis. They are learning—and they will learn the hard way—that whoever harms Israel pays a very heavy price for it,” the prime minister said.