Israel said it had shot down a drone that was approaching from the east Wednesday, as Houthi officials in Yemen vowed to continue attacking the country a day after President Donald Trump said the United States would stop bombing the Iran-backed group.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the drone was intercepted by the air force, and sirens blared as it approached. It was not immediately clear who launched the drone. But the Houthi militia group reiterated that it would continue to attack Israel, both to avenge attacks in Yemen and because of the war in the Gaza Strip.

“We cannot accept Yemen being targeted and violated without a response,” Mohamed Abdelsalam, a spokesperson for the group, told Al Jazeera, the Qatari broadcaster, echoing comments by a senior Houthi politician Tuesday. “We will continue to respond to the Israeli entity by all available means.”

Israeli fighter jets have bombed several sites across Yemen this week, killing at least seven people, according to casualty reports, and disabling the country’s main international airport. Khaled Al-Shaif, the director of the airport in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, said the attack had caused $500 million worth of damage, destroyed three planes and forced flights to be suspended indefinitely.

Israel said the airport attack was in response to a Houthi ballistic missile strike near Ben-Gurion International Airport, outside Tel Aviv, on Sunday. Airlines have temporarily suspended flights in response to the attack, which wounded at least six people.

Long campaign

For more than a year, the Houthis, who rule much of northwestern Yemen, have fired rockets and drones at Israel and ships in the Red Sea in what they call a solidarity campaign with Palestinians in Gaza.

The United States has lent its military support to Israel in the conflict, launching missile strikes against Yemen and deploying its aircraft carriers to protect shipping. The efforts began under the Biden administration but were stepped up in mid-March, when Trump escalated attacks and vowed that the Houthis would be “annihilated.” Over the last seven weeks, the campaign has cost well over $1 billion.

But Trump abruptly reversed course Tuesday, surprising Israel and the Pentagon, by announcing that a truce between the U.S. and the Houthis had been negotiated by neighboring Oman.

“They just don’t want to fight,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during an unrelated meeting with Canada’s prime minister. “And we will honor that, and we will stop the bombings. They have capitulated, but more importantly, we will take their word. They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore.”

But Abdelsalam said the Houthis would continue attacking Israeli ships until Israel lifts a blockade against Gaza that has prevented humanitarian aid from reaching its 2 million residents.

Abdelsalam said the “preliminary” truce with the United States would not affect Houthi support for Gaza. “We will evaluate any future U.S. support for Israel and determine our stance accordingly,” he said.

Another U.S. plane lost

Separately, a U.S. F/A-18 fighter jet landing on the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea went overboard, forcing its two pilots to eject, a defense official said Wednesday.

The incident Tuesday marks the latest mishap to mar the deployment of the Truman, which has been essential in the airstrike campaign by the United States against Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The F/A-18 Super Hornet landed on the Truman after a flight, but “the arrestment failed,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the incident now under investigation.

“Arrestment” refers to the hook system used by aircraft landing on carriers, which catches steel wire ropes on the flight deck. It remains unclear what part of the system failed.

Tuesday’s incident was the latest to see the Navy lose an F/A-18, which cost about $60 million. In April, another F/A-18 fighter jet slipped off the hangar deck of the Truman and fell into the Red Sea. The crew members who were in the pilot seat of the Super Hornet and on the small towing tractor both jumped away.

And in February, the Truman collided with a merchant vessel near Port Said, Egypt.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote on the social platform X that an investigation was underway and that “this aircraft was not struck by the Houthis.”

“The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group remains fully mission-capable,” he added.

This report contains information from the Associated Press.