ISRAELI bombers pounded Yemen’s capital Sana’a and its port Hodeida today, killing at least nine as they sought to break the Houthi forces, which have launched attacks in solidarity with Palestine.

The bombing raids followed a Houthi missile strike against Israel. The military said it targeted infrastructure in Hodeida, another port Salif, and the Ras Isa oil terminal, then took out energy infrastructure in Sana’a. 

Targeting civilian energy infrastructure is a war crime.

“After Hamas, Hezbollah and the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis are almost the last remaining arm of Iran’s axis of evil,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared.

“Whoever raises a hand against the state of Israel, his hand will be cut off,” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz added. “Whoever harms us will be harmed sevenfold.”

Yemen’s Houthi — who have controlled most of the country since 2014, though a government with greater international recognition sits in exile in Saudi Arabia — have launched a series of attacks on shipping in the Red Sea since Israel’s invasion of Gaza began, targeting shipping destined for or originating in Israel and that of Israel’s key military backers the United States and Britain, which have launched air raids in response.

Israel also carried out further attacks across northern Gaza, the Palestinian territory it invaded 14 months ago, killing another 25 people.

Human Rights Watch published a detailed study today, saying Israel’s deliberate restriction of Gaza’s water supply amounts to “acts of genocide.”

The rights group is the latest among a growing number of critics to accuse Israel of genocide. Its report found that countless infants, children and adults have died from malnutrition, dehydration and illness as a result of actions by Israeli authorities over more than a year of war to deliberately cut the flow of water and electricity to Gaza, destroy infrastructure and prevent the distribution of critical supplies.

“As a state policy, these acts constitute a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population. Israeli officials are therefore committing the crime against humanity of extermination,” it said.

Britain’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer courted controversy early in the war when he said Israel had the right to cut off the supply of water to civilians.