UN Chief Urges Restraint Following Israeli Airstrikes in Yemen's Hudaydah
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – UN Secretary General António Guterres expressed deep concern over reports of Israeli airstrikes in and around Yemen's port city of Hudaydah, urging all parties to avoid actions that could harm civilians and escalate regional tensions.
"Initial reports indicate a number of fatalities and over 80 people injured in this attack and that there has been considerable damage to civilian infrastructure. The secretary general calls on all concerned to avoid attacks that could harm civilians and damage civilian infrastructure," a statement from his spokesman read.
Guterres also "remains deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation in the region and continues to urge all to exercise utmost restraint," the statement added.
Yemen’s al-Masirah television channel reported that the Israeli attack targeted oil storage facilities and a power plant in Hudaydah on Saturday, igniting a fire.
The Yemeni Ministry of Health confirmed three people were killed and 87 wounded in the Israeli air raids.
Yemen’s Supreme Political Council vowed to respond to the attack on the Red Sea port city of Hudaydah.
"This aggression will not pass without an effective response against the enemy," it said in a statement.
Mohammed Abdul-Salam, spokesman for Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement, said the "brutal Israeli aggression against Yemen" aims to "pressure Yemen to stop supporting Gaza, which is a dream that will not come true."
Spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, stated that the Arab country’s military would not hesitate in attacking "vital targets" in the Israeli-occupied lands.
The attack followed a Yemeni military drone strike against Tel Aviv in the 1948 Israeli-occupied territories.
The Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the Israeli assault in a statement.
"The occupying regime will undoubtedly be burned by the fire ignited in Hudaydah today, and the mounting Zionist crimes will change the entire equation," said Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement also voiced support for Ansarullah and the Yemeni nation after the air raids.
"We think that this stupid step by the Zionist enemy is a sign of a new, dangerous phase in the confrontation at the level of the entire region," Hezbollah said in a statement.
Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7.
Yemeni Armed Forces have said they won’t stop their attacks until Israeli ground and aerial offensives in Gaza, which have killed at least 38,919 people and wounded another 89,622 individuals, come to an end.
The leader of the Ansarullah resistance movement, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, has stated that it is "a great honor and blessing to be confronting America directly."