Netanyahu says ordered IDF to attack Houthi strategic targets

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he and Defense Minister Israel Katz had ordered the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to attack Houthi strategic targets in Yemen and that this attack was not the last one, Report informs via TASS.

"In recent days, we with the defense minister ordered the IDF to attack Houthi strategic targets. We have destroyed considerable terrorist assets used by the Houthis. This was not the first and will not be the last attack," he said at the Knesset (parliament).

Israel, according to Netanyahu, adheres to a "very simple principle" that "those seeking to do harm to Israel receives harm in response." "Israel strengthens its deterrent power, it hits its enemies and destroys Iran’s terrorist satellite one after another," he said.

Commenting on the deployment of Israeli troops to the buffer zone in Syria following the fall of the Bashar Assad government, Netanyahu stressed that Israel will not let any terrorist group entrench near its borders. "This story is over. We are changing the Middle East. Israel’s successes are winning recognition in our region and in the entire world," he stressed.

According to the Reshet 13 television channel, chief of Israel’s intelligence service Mossad David Barnea stands for delivering strikes on Iran to stop Houthi attacks from Yemen. "We need to go for the head [of the snake], for Iran — if we only hit the Houthis, it’s not certain we’ll manage to stop them," he was quoted as saying at a government meeting. Channel 12 said that Barnea also made this recommendation in writing.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported on December 19 that a missile launched from Yemen had been intercepted in central Israel. Its falling fragments seriously damaged a school building in Ramat Gan, a neighborhood in eastern Tel Aviv. After this incident, Israeli forces delivered airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, including energy infrastructure facilities in Sana.

On December 21, the IDF said that a missile had been launched from Yemen at central Israel. It was not intercepted and fell down near Tel Aviv. According to Israel’s medical services, at least 14 people were hurt.