The U.S. military on Tuesday said that it had carried out a series of strikes on the Houthis, as the Iranian-backed group in Yemen suggested it would continue attacking Israel and ships in the Red Sea if there was no ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

It was not clear whether the strikes would be a setback for the Houthis, who have remained undeterred even as they have come under attack from the United States and Israel.

The Houthis have been launching missiles at Israel and attacking commercial vessels they claim are headed for Israel in solidarity with their ally Hamas in Gaza.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said on the social media site X that it had conducted “multiple precision strikes” on Houthi targets in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, and coastal sites on Monday and Tuesday. It said the targets included a command and control facility and centers for weapons production and storage.

A video posted by the command, which directs U.S. military combat forces in the Middle East, showed F/A-18 Hornets and a F-35 Joint Strike Fighter carrying bombs under their wings, launching at night from an aircraft carrier. It also showed the daytime launch of two missiles from an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, which typically carries Tomahawk cruise missiles for strikes on targets ashore.

Al-Masirah, a TV channel affiliated with the Houthis, reported two complexes in Sanaa were struck on Tuesday.

Mohammed Abdulsalam, a senior Houthi spokesperson, condemned “American aggression on Yemen,” calling it a “blatant violation of an independent country’s sovereignty and blunt support for Israel.”

Nasruddin Amer, a Houthi spokesperson, vowed that his group would continue “its operations in support of Gaza whatever the situation.”

“We will confront any escalation by escalating ourselves,” he told The New York Times in a text message. “The best solution is to stop the aggression on Gaza.”

While indirect talks between Israel and Hamas appeared to have made some progress in recent weeks, a breakthrough to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held there has remained elusive.

Houthis strike Israel

On Tuesday morning, Yahya Sarea, the military spokesperson for the Houthis, said his group had conducted a drone and cruise missile attack on the U.S. aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman, preventing an aerial assault that U.S. forces were preparing to execute.

The exchange of fire occurred as the Houthis launched their fifth missile attack on Israel in a week, despite increasingly strong warnings from Israeli officials.

Most of the Houthis’ salvos have been intercepted, but some have caused damage.

The warhead of one intercepted missile badly damaged a school in a Tel Aviv suburb in December, landing at night when the building was empty. Another missile got through and struck a playground in Tel Aviv, damaging the surrounding apartment buildings and slightly wounding 16 people.

And they have kept Israelis under threat from aerial attacks even after the Israeli military has destroyed most of Hamas’ rocket-launching capabilities and agreed to a ceasefire with Hezbollah, the militant group in Lebanon, which had fired thousands of rockets over the border Israel’s northern border.

Yemen, to Israel’s south, sits at the southern opening of the Red Sea on the western tip of the Arabian peninsula — a strategic point for intercepting commercial shipping traveling through the Suez Canal en routh to and from Europe and Asia.

Israel’s military said that the latest Houthi missile, fired around midnight Yemen time, was intercepted by the air force before entering Israeli territory. Still, warning sirens blared across central Israel, sending people running for cover.

Magen David Adom, the Israeli emergency rescue service, said it had treated a person who was hit by a car while hurrying to a shelter.

While the Israeli military referred to a single missile fired from Yemen, Sarea said the group had launched two missiles that hit their targets: the international airport near Tel Aviv and a power station in the Jerusalem area.

Israeli authorities did not report any damage to the airport or a power station. The mayor of Beit Shemesh, a town west of Jerusalem, told the Israeli news media that part of a missile had fallen there after it was intercepted.

The Houthis control much of northern Yemen and they have taken a hard line on Israel. The group’s motto includes “death to Israel,” “death to America” and “damn the Jews.”

Israel has responded to some of the Houthi attacks by striking infrastructure in Yemen that Israeli officials claim serves the group’s interests, including power stations, seaports and the international airport in the capital. Human rights groups have warned that the Israeli military’s strikes in Yemen could exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation in the country.

Human Rights Watch said a strike on the Hudaydah seaport in July “could have a long-term impact on millions of Yemenis who rely on the port for food and humanitarian aid.”

At the U.N.

At a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Monday, Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, vowed that the Houthis would pay a heavy price for their attacks, as Hamas and Hezbollah have. Those two groups are also backed by Iran.

“Let this be your final warning,” he said. “This is a not a threat. It is a promise. You will share the same miserable fate.”

Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would deliver powerful blows to the Houthis.

“We are committed to removing this threat as we are doing on other fronts,” Netanyahu told Channel 14, a right-wing television station, referring to the Houthis. “The arms of the octopus are being cut off, one after another,” he added, referring to Iran.

Israel faces multiple obstacles to confronting the Houthis: It lacks intelligence on the group, the distance between Israel and Yemen is more than 1,000 miles, and Yemen has a mountainous terrain that can offer Houthis an added layer of protection.

Abdulghani al-Iryani, a senior researcher at the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, said he did not think Israel’s tough talk would convince the Houthis to back off their position.

“I don’t think they’ll stop because of the punishment the people are getting from the Israelis and from everyone else,” he said. “To them, the loss of life among civilians is totally irrelevant. They don’t care.”