Yemen firefighters struggle against port blaze after Israel strikes

Firefighting teams on Monday struggled to contain a massive blaze at Yemen's rebel-held Hodeida port, days after a deadly Israeli strike damaged oil storage facilities and endangered aid ships in the harbour.

Heavy flames and black smoke spiralled into the sky for a third consecutive day following the strike on Saturday, said an AFP correspondent in Hodeida.

Firefighters appeared to have made little progress, with the blaze seemingly expanding in some parts of the port, the correspondent said, amid fears it could reach food storage facilities.

The strike on Saturday was the first by Israel on the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country and came in response to a Huthi rebel drone strike that breached Israel's air defences, killing one person in Tel Aviv the day before.

High-resolution satellite images taken by Maxar Technologies showed flames consuming a heavily damaged fuel storage area at the Hodeida harbour.

Analysis of satellite imagery from Planet by Dutch peace organisation PAX showed at least 33 destroyed oil storage tankers, said Wim Zwijnenburg, a project leader with the organisation.

"We expect (to find) more damage, as not all storage tanks are visible because of heavy smoke" from the fire and burning fuel, Zwijnenburg told AFP.

The fuel depot is run by the Yemen Petroleum Company which said late Sunday that the six people killed in the Israeli strike were its employees.

The Huthis say more than 80 others were wounded in the attack, many of them with severe burns.

With black smoke billowing overhead, a funeral ceremony was held on Monday for the victims of the strikes.

Their coffins were carried through the streets of Hodeida, flanked by crowds and led by a Huthi marching band.

The Huthis, who are fighting Israel as part of a regional alliance of Iran-backed groups, have pledged a "huge" response to the strikes and threatened to once again attack Tel Aviv.

- 'Vital lifeline' -

Yemeni port authorities said Hodeida "is operating at its full capacity", the rebels' Saba news agency reported.

"We are working around the clock to receive all ships and there is no concern about the supply chain and supplies of food, medicine, and oil derivatives," port official Nasr al-Nusairi was quoted by Saba as saying on Sunday.

But the US-based Navanti Group said the strikes on Hodeida destroyed five cranes.

The attack also decimated most of the port's fuel storage capacity of 150,000 tonnes, leaving the Hodeida governorate with an overall capacity of 50,000, the Navanti Group said.

The World Food Programme on Monday told AFP that there had been "minor" damage to a crane on one of its aid vessels in the port and that its fuel storage facility was impacted.

The ship "remains operational," but "all 780,000 litres of fuel stock was likely destroyed," said Pierre Honnorat, WFP's Yemen country director.

Hodeida's port is a vital entry point for fuel imports and international aid for rebel-held areas of Yemen, a country where the United Nations says more than half the population relies on humanitarian assistance.

"Yemenis living in Huthi-controlled territories are already suffering—from widespread hunger, from abuses from Huthi authorities, from a decade of warfare," Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

"Israeli forces' attack on one of the country's main ports for humanitarian aid entry will only serve to exacerbate their suffering," Niku Jafarnia, HRW's Yemen researcher told AFP.

The International Rescue Committee charity called the port "a vital lifeline for delivering humanitarian aid to Yemen."

"Any impact on this infrastructure jeopardises the entry of essential goods and hampers aid efforts."