U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened Yemen’s Houthi rebels that they’ll be “completely annihilated” as American airstrikes pounded locations under their control, while further pressuring the group’s main benefactor Iran.

Israel’s military intercepted a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels early Thursday, the second to target Israel since the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire, as the United States’ intensifies airstrikes against the Iran-backed militant group.

The group's military spokesman has also said without providing evidence that the Houthis had launched attacks against the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea.

(Reuters) -Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that Tehran does not need proxies in the region and that Yemen's Houthis, who are among the groups in the Middle East that Iran is aligned with, act on their own motivations.

Yemen's Houthis will not "dial down" their action against Israeli shipping in the Red Sea in response to U.S. military pressure or appeals from the group's allies such as Iran, the Yemeni militant group's foreign minister said.

Iran's leader warned the U.S. could receive "severe slaps" following President Donald Trump’s threats toward Yemen’s Houthis, a report said.