Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has announced a series of large-scale attacks on Yemen’s Houthis after the rebel group threatened to resume raids on Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea over Israel’s blockade on Gaza.

The US attacks, which began on Saturday and continued into the early hours of Sunday, on the Yemeni capital Sanaa, as well as on areas in Saada, Al Bayda and Radaa killed 31 people and wounded 101, “most of whom were children and women”, health ministry spokesperson Anis Al-Asbahi posted on X.

The victims in Saada included four children and a woman. The US raids on Yemen marked the most significant military action of Trump’s second term, to date.

“Your time is up, and your attacks must stop, starting today. If they don’t, hell will rain down upon you like nothing you have ever seen before,” Trump said in a statement on Truth Social, his social media site.

“I have ordered the US military today to launch a decisive and powerful military operation against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen,” he said, adding that Washington “will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective”.

In his Truth Social statement, Trump also told Iran it needed to immediately stop supporting the Houthis. He said if Iran threatens the US, “America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!”

‘False, misleading’

The Houthis, who control much of Yemen, have yet to attack any ships despite threatening to do so last week over Israel’s blockade on all food, fuel and other supplies into the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Houthis accused the US of overstating the threat to shipping operations to influence public opinion.

“What the US president claims about a threat to international navigation in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait is false and misleading to international public opinion,” Mohammed Abdul-Salam said.

“The maritime embargo declared by Yemen in support of Gaza is limited only to Israeli navigation until humanitarian aid is delivered to the people of Gaza,  according to the ceasefire agreement between the Palestinian resistance and the enemy entity,” he added.

The Political Bureau of the Houthis also issued a separate statement, describing the attacks as a “war crime” and promised to respond.

“The aggression will not go unanswered,” it said. “Our Yemeni armed forces are fully prepared to respond to escalation with escalation.”

In Sanaa, residents said at least four air strikes rocked the Eastern Geraf neighbourhood in the Shouab district, terrifying women and children in the area.

“The explosions were very strong,” said Abdallah al-Alffi. “It was like an earthquake.”

The Houthis have launched more than 100 attacks targeting shipping since November 2023, following Israel’s war on Gaza, disrupting global commerce and setting the US military on a costly campaign to intercept missiles and drones that burned through stocks of US air defences.

The Houthis say the attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

Iran’s other allies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have been severely weakened by Israel since the start of the Gaza conflict. Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, who was closely aligned with Tehran, was overthrown by rebels in December.

But throughout, Yemen’s Houthis have remained resilient and often on the offensive, sinking two vessels, seizing another and killing at least four seafarers in an offensive that disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around Southern Africa.

The Houthis halted the drone and missile attacks when the Gaza ceasefire was declared in January.

‘No military, political logic’

Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, DC, said Trump was justifying the assault on Yemen to “stop” Houthi attacks, when the group had yet to launch any raids, despite threatening to do so.

“Trump says another reason is because Houthis attacked a US military warship. But that happened when he was not president,” Culhane said.

“The White House has also put out a statement, saying that before the attacks, there were 25,000 ships that transited the Red Sea annually. And that it’s now down to 10,000. This shoots down the president’s concept that nobody is actually transiting the region.

“It also said that US commercial ships have been attacked 145 times since 2023. And the last one was in December, again, before Trump was inaugurated.”

The strikes on Saturday were carried out in part by fighter aircraft from the Harry S Truman aircraft carrier, which is in the Red Sea, officials said.

The US military’s Central Command, which oversees troops in the Middle East, described Saturday’s strikes as the start of a large-scale operation across Yemen.

“Houthi attacks on American ships & aircraft (and our troops!) will not be tolerated; and Iran, their benefactor, is on notice,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on X. “Freedom of Navigation will be restored.”

Earlier this month, the US also designated the Houthi movement, known formally as Ansar Allah, as a “foreign terrorist” organisation.

Nabeel Khoury, a former US diplomat, meanwhile told Al Jazeera that Trump’s decision to launch attacks against the Houthis is misguided, and would not subdue the rebel group.

“For our president who came in wanting to avoid war and wanting to be a man of peace, he’s going about it the wrong way. There are many paths that can be used before you resort to war,” Khoury said.

“If you think that Hamas, living and fighting on a very small piece of land, totally surrounded by land, air and sea, and yet, 17 months of bombardment by the Israelis did not get rid of them. The Houthis lived in a much more rugged space, mountainous regions – it would be virtually impossible to eradicate them,” he said.

“So there is no military logic to what’s happening, and there is no political logic either.”