Israeli PM warns Houthis of ‘high price’ after rocket attack – News

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned Yemen's Houthi rebels of retaliation after the group claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on central Israel.

“This morning, the Houthis from Yemen fired a surface-to-surface missile at our territory. They should have known by now that we demand a high price for any attempt to harm us,” Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting, according to a statement from his office.

“Those who need a reminder on this matter are invited to visit the port of Hodeidah,” he added, referring to the Yemeni Red Sea city that was bombed by Israeli warplanes in July after the Houthis claimed responsibility for a drone strike that killed a civilian in Tel Aviv.

The Houthis are among the Iran-backed groups in the Middle East that have been drawn into the conflict sparked by Hamas's attack on southern Israel on October 7.

On Israel's northern flank, the Lebanese Hezbollah movement regularly engages in cross-border firefights with Israeli forces that threaten to escalate into open war.

On Sunday morning, about 40 missiles were fired from Lebanon towards the Israeli region of Upper Galilee and the annexed Golan Heights, the Israeli military said.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border and Netanyahu said on Sunday that the current situation was unsustainable.

Hamas views the rocket attack as a “natural response to the aggression of the Zionist entity against our Palestinian people … We reiterate that the Zionist enemy will not enjoy security until it stops its brutal aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip,” the group said in a statement.