Israeli air strikes on Yemen’s Hudaydah port last month appeared to be an indiscriminate or disproportionate attack on civilians which may amount to a war crime, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday. Israel claimed on 20 July that its warplanes struck Houthi military targets near Hudaydah, Reuters has reported.

The retaliatory Israeli air strikes on Hudaydah hit more than two dozen oil storage tanks and two dockside cranes in the port, as well as a power plant in the province’s Salif district, explained the rights organisation. “The attacks appeared to cause disproportionate harm to civilians and civilian objects. Serious violations of the laws of war committed wilfully, that is deliberately or recklessly, are war crimes.”
Analysed satellite imagery found that the oil tanks burned for at least three days, posing environmental concerns, according to the HRW report.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli foreign ministry.
Hudaydah, which has been under Houthi control since 2021, is critical for delivering food and other necessities to the Yemeni people, who depend on imports. About 70 per cent of Yemen’s commercial imports and 80 per cent of its humanitarian assistance passes through the port.
The Houthis have launched missiles and drones at Israel and disrupted global trade through the Red Sea in response to Israel’s assault on Gaza, further destabilising the Middle East as war in the Palestinian enclave rages on after 10 months.
Israel says that the Houthis have launched 200 attacks against it since the Gaza war began, many of them intercepted and most of them not deadly. However, a rare Houthi drone strike on 19 July that hit Tel Aviv prompted Israel to announce its first strikes against the group the next day.
The Houthi movement, known formally as Ansar Allah, said it would continue to attack Israel in response.