Israeli Jets Make Direct Hit on Yemen After Houthis' Drone Attack on Tel Aviv

Whenever someone attacks Israel, her leaders often include in their remarks afterward that they will respond to it at the time of their choosing. As RedState wrote on Thursday evening, an explosion rocked Tel Aviv, Israel, near the U.S. Embassy, but it was not known at the time who was responsible:

Reports are coming in about a loud explosion heard in downtown Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday night. The full details of the situation are not yet known, but it’s clear that whatever caused this blast created significant damage.
Israeli media reported a loud explosion on Ben Yehuda Street on the corner of Shalom Aleichem in Tel Aviv.
Police, fire, and rescue services were deployed to the area and told Israeli media that there was no fire. The source of the explosion is not yet known.
Residents who live near the place of the explosion say that objects were shattered in their houses as a result of the blast.
...
The Israelis have said there were no reported attacks from the air:
The Home Front Command stated: "No aerial intrusion into the country's central area was detected, and therefore no alarm was triggered - the incident is under investigation."

It also was unknown how many people were injured in the attack, but two were taken to the hospital with shrapnel injuries, and several others were treated for shock, according to reports.

It turns out that the Iranian-backed Houthis were behind the attack--and on Saturday, they got an answer from Israel for the terror group's months of attacks and belligerent moves in the Red Sea against commercial vessels:

A short while ago, the Israeli IDF fighter jets struck military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the area of the Al Hudaydah Port in Yemen in response to the hundreds of attacks carried out against the State of Israel in recent months.

Source: @IDF https://t.co/90sSQsqdeO pic.twitter.com/wM7MhmOCdB
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) July 20, 2024

IDF: During the night, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) entered Israel from the direction of the sea from the west, which we estimate was launched from Yemen, and hit a building in central Tel Aviv.

It appears that this is a Simad 3 UAV, which we estimate traveled from Yemen to… pic.twitter.com/6DiRAeSp4t
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) July 19, 2024

Israeli fighter jets conducted an air strike in Yemen on Saturday in retaliation for the Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv last Thursday, U.S. and Israeli officials said.
Why it matters: This is the first time that Israel has directly attacked Yemen, a country more than 1,000 miles away.
The Houthis, an Islamist militant group backed by Iran, have harassed and attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea for months in response to Israel's war in Gaza.
Houthi officials said the Israeli strike hit oil facilities in the port of Hodeidah, which is controlled by the rebel group.
The Saudi television channel al-Hadath reported three people were killed and 15 wounded in the Israeli strike.

BACKGROUND:

US Navy Finally Takes Action in Yemen Against Houthis, Destroying Their Radar Capabilities

Houthis Attack Oil Tanker in Red Sea With Missile After Biden Just Begged Iran to Make Them Stop

You can find many more stories like those here.

This update comes just a day after my colleague Streiff wrote about Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealing that Iran is just "one-to-two" weeks away from the capability of making a nuclear weapon.

The U.S. knew about the Israeli strikes in advance, and coordinated on them, according to officials, Axios reported:

Behind the scenes: Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant spoke to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday and told him Israel was likely to respond to the Houthi attack, which killed one Israeli and wounded several others, a U.S. official said.
...
An Israeli official confirmed the strike and said it was conducted in coordination with the U.S. and an international coalition formed to counter Houthi attacks

We'll keep you posted on developments, as future incidents warrant.