The leader of Yemen’s Houthis said Thursday that retaliation for an Israeli strike on a port under the control of the Iran-backed militia was inevitable.

The vow added to regional tensions that have soared after Iran vowed reprisals against Israel for the high-profile killings of two Tehran-allied militant leaders last week.

A response to Israel’s July 20 attack that targeted fuel storage tanks in Hodeida harbor is “inevitable and will come,” Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech.

The battle with Israel was “at its zenith,” he added.

The Houthis are fighting Israel as part of Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance,” which includes militant groups in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.

The delayed response by the Houthis and Iran’s regional allies to Israel’s latest moves was “purely tactical,” the Houthis’ chief said.

“The aim is a genuinely impactful response” in light of preemptive defense measures taken by Israel and its American backers, he added.

“The decision to respond is a decision made by everyone; at the level of the entire axis,” he said.

The Hodeida strike was the first claimed by Israel on the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country.

It came a day after the Houthis launched their first fatal strike on Israel - a drone attack in Tel Aviv that killed an Israeli civilian.

The Israeli response decimated the port’s fuel storage capacity and killed at least nine people, according to the Houthis.

Since November, the Houthis have launched a flurry of missile and drone strikes on Israel-linked shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.

They say the campaign that has disrupted maritime traffic is intended to signal solidarity with Palestinians amid the Gaza war.

“The decrease in maritime traffic is a great victory,” the Houthi leader said, adding that a total of 177 vessels had been targeted.