The US military carried out dozens of airstrikes on Yemen Saturday and Sunday, including strikes on residential areas in the densely populated city of Sanaa, killing at least 53 people, including 31 civilians.

Anis al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Yemeni Health Ministry, said that over 100 people were wounded, “most of whom were children and women.”

In an unhinged rant on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “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!”

He added, “We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective.” The Hill reported, according to a source, that Saturday’s attacks were the beginning of “many days if not weeks” of attacks.

The massacre, a war crime and criminal act of military aggression, was justified as a “preemptive” strike in response to a statement by Yemen’s Houthis last week that they will block Israeli ships from transiting the Red Sea until Israel ceases its blockade of food and water into Gaza.

No food, water, fuel or electricity has entered Gaza since March 2, despite a nominal “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas. The United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has accused Israel of using “starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime.”

Israel, with the support of the United States, is seeking to starve the population of Gaza, which before the start of the genocide numbered 2 million, in an effort to ethnically cleanse the territory. US President Donald Trump has declared that the United States would seek to “own” Gaza.

On Sunday, the US military carried out more than 40 raids on Yemen, attacking five different provinces. The victims included at least five children and two women, the Houthi Ministry of Health said. Most of the victims were in Sanaa, where the US claimed it was attempting to murder Houthi leaders—itself a war crime.

Michael Waltz, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, told Fox News Sunday the attacks were “an overwhelming response that actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out, and the difference here is one, going after the Houthi leadership, and two, holding Iran responsible.”

The massacre was the largest military action in the Middle East of the Trump administration to date, and the largest US attack on Yemen in recent years. Between last January and May, the US and UK carried out five major attacks on Yemen.

Ahmed, a father of two, told AFP, “I’ve been living in Sanaa for 10 years, hearing shelling throughout the war. By God, I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”

Abdul Rahman al-Nuerah, a resident of Sanaa, told the New York Times that the explosions shattered the windows of his house and terrified his children. “I instantly embraced and comforted them. … Children and mothers are afraid and still in shock.”

One resident who witnessed the attacks told Reuters, “The explosions were violent and shook the neighborhood like an earthquake.”

In addition to attacks on residential areas, the US bombed a power facility in the town of Dahyan, causing electricity blackouts.

US officials stated the massacre in Yemen was a threat against Iran. The strikes were intended to “put Iran on notice that enough is enough,” said US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a notorious public defender of US war crimes, in an interview with Fox News.

Hegseth said the US attack on Yemen would be “unrelenting,” adding, “This isn’t a one-night thing. This will continue until you say, ‘We’re done shooting at ships. We’re done shooting at assets.’”

“To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end immediately!” Trump said on Truth Social, adding, “because America will hold you fully accountable.”

In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Waltz made clear that the US is considering targeting Iranian forces inside Yemen as well. “We will hold not only the Houthis accountable, but we’re going to hold Iran, their backers, accountable as well,” he said. “Their Iranian trainers, IRGC and others, that intelligence, other things that they have put in to help the Houthis attack the global economy, those—those targets will be on the table too.”

The attacks could be the beginning of a major new US military intervention in the Middle East, with the New York Times reporting that “some national security aides want to pursue an even more aggressive campaign that could lead the Houthis to essentially lose control of large parts of the country’s north.”

The Times reported that “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has been pushing Mr. Trump to authorize a joint US-Israel operation to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities, taking advantage of a moment when Iran’s air defenses are exposed, after a bombing campaign from Israel in October dismantled critical military infrastructure.”

Over the past year, the United States and Israel have waged a major regional war, coordinated with the Gaza genocide, targeting Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran itself. Israel carried out two major attacks on Iran, targeting its air defense infrastructure and potentially opening the door for a major US-Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

The aim of this war is the creation of what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the “new Middle East,” a term first coined by Bush administration Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2006.

As the US continues its military escalation throughout the Middle East, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is deteriorating. “Without aid entering the Gaza Strip, roughly 1 million children are living without the very basics they need to survive—yet again,” said Edouard Beigbeder, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Agency.

“Tragically, approximately 4,000 newborns are currently unable to access essential lifesaving care due to the major impact on medical facilities in the Gaza Strip,” Beigbeder said. “Every day without these ventilators, lives are lost, especially among vulnerable, premature newborns in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Despite the nominal ceasefire, Israeli forces continue to kill people in Gaza every single day. Over the past 24 hours, 29 bodies were brought to hospitals in Gaza, and 51 people were wounded. This has brought the confirmed death toll to 48,572, with another 10,000 more missing and likely buried under the rubble. On Saturday, an Israeli drone attack killed nine people, eight of whom were aid workers.

“It is with great sadness and regret that we announce the demise in Gaza of eight of our team’s dedicated humanitarian aid workers. They were killed in violation of the agreed ceasefire in a drone airstrike,” said Shuaib Yusaf, the CEO of the Al Khair Foundation, a humanitarian group.