U.S. air strikes on the Ras Issa oil port on the Red Sea killed 74 people, mainly workers at the port, according to an updated toll from Yemeni Health Ministry on Friday.

Health Ministry spokesperson Anees al-Asbahi said 171 people were injured in Thursday's strikes, according to preliminary figures, with rescue teams continuing efforts to search for victims. The U.S. military said the strikes aimed to cut off a source of fuel for the Houthi militant group.

Ras Issa terminal has a storage capacity of three million barrels and was the first port built for oil exports from Yemen, around 40 years ago.

The U.S. military said it had destroyed the fuel port on Thursday as part of its campaign against the Houthis. Following this raid, the U.S. air force attacked the strategic infrastructure near Hodeida again on Friday while rescue operations were still ongoing, according to the Houthis.

Washington has hammered the Houthis with near-daily air strikes since March 15 in a bid to end their attacks on civilian shipping and military vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The group began their attacks in late 2023, targeting commercial ships associated with Israel or the U.S. in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid Israel's devastating military onslaught there. Houthi attacks on shipping have not resulted in any deaths, while joint American-British bombing campaigns against Yemen, which the U.S. says it is carrying out in order to "ensure maritime freedom of movement" have now killed over 200 people.

In a statement, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said: "U.S. forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorize the entire region for over 10 years. 

"The objective of these strikes was to degrade the economic source of power of the Huothis, who continue to exploit and bring great pain upon their fellow countrymen." Ships "have continued to supply fuel via the port of Ras Issa" despite Washington designating the rebels a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year, the military command added, without specifying the source of the fuel.

Yemeni Health Ministry spokersperson Anees Alasbahi said the preliminary death toll included five paramedics. There were also "50 wounded workers and employees at the Ras Issa oil port, following the American aggression," he said on X before Friday's attacks raised the toll further and ongoing rescue operations recovered more bodies from the wreckage. "The death toll is likely to rise as body parts are still being identified," he added.

In images broadcast early Friday by the Houthi channel Al-Massira and presented as the "first images of the American aggression" against the oil port, a fireball illuminates the area where ships are located, while thick columns of smoke rise above what appears to be a fire. "Civil defense rescue teams and paramedics are doing their utmost to search for and extract victims and extinguish the fire," Alasbahi said on Friday.

"Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted," Israel's army said Friday on Telegram, adding that aerial defense systems had been deployed "to intercept the threat".

Houthi attacks have effectively hampered shipping through the Suez Canal — a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic — forcing many companies into a costly detour around the tip of southern Africa. The group has maintained that it will halt the attacks when Israel halts its attacks on Gaza, where it has killed more than 50,000 people. The Houthis stopped targeting ships during each Gaza cease-fire and resumed attacks when Israel resumed its fighting in Gaza.

The United States first began conducting strikes against the Houthis under former President Joe Biden's administration, and his successor President Donald Trump has vowed that military action against the rebels would continue until they are no longer a threat to shipping.

On Thursday evening, France's Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said a French frigate in the Red Sea destroyed a drone launched from Yemen.

"Our armed forces continue their commitment to ensuring maritime freedom of movement," he said on X.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told journalists Thursday that the Chinese satellite firm Chang Guang Satellite Technology Company was "directly supporting Iran-backed Houthi terrorist attacks on US interests".

"Their actions — and Beijing's support of the company, even after our private engagements with them — is yet another example of China's empty claims to support peace," she said.

Bruce did not initially provide details on the nature of the company's support for the rebels, but later referred to "a Chinese company providing satellite imagery to the Houthis."