Yemen-based Houthis — the last of Iran-backed groups still fully present in the regional war that began 14 months ago — are slowly escalating attacks on Israel with an eye to avoid full-out retaliation.

The Israeli military said the airstrikes targeted infrastructure that the Houthis have used to bring Iranian weapons and officials into Yemen.

Multiple air raids have hit several targets in rebel-held areas of Yemen, witnesses and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels said, with their media saying Israel launched the strikes.

Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency is reportedly pressing Jerusalem for a direct strike on Iran to stop the continued Houthi attacks on Israel as the Israeli Defence Forces consider targeting the rebel group’s leaders.

Israeli forces on Thursday launched a massive barrage of strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen in the latest exchange of attacks between Israel and the Iranian-backed rebel group. The Israeli military said in a statement on the social platform X that fighter jets struck military targets on the western coast of Yemen.

The Yemen-based Houthi militant group said Wednesday it fired a ballistic missile at the Tel Aviv area in central Israel, an attack that prompted air raid sirens to sound but caused no damage. Israel’s military said it intercepted the missile before it crossed into Israeli territory.