THE US military conducted overnight airstrikes on Yemen in what president Donald Trump claimed was a response to Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, hitting mostly women and children reported London's Independent newspaper.

Air strikes hit the capital Sana'a, the southwestern city of Taiz and the town of Dahyan in north western Saada area, Al Masirah TV reported.

Al Jazeera reported a Houthi spokesman said Houthi forces had launched 18 missiles and a drone at the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and its accompanying warships.

Israel cut off power, halted all international aid supplies to the war-ravaged Gaza earlier this month and renewed attacks, ending the fragile ceasefire, said the report.

Mr Trump also warned Yemen's chief ally, Iran, that it needed to immediately halt support to the Houthis, who rule most of the Arab country. If Iran threatened the US, he said, "America will hold you fully accountable and we won't be nice about it!"

Said President Trump: "To all Houthi terrorists, 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.".

"The explosions were violent and shook the neighbourhood like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children," Sana'a resident Abdullah Yahia told Reuters.

The Houthis carried out scores of attacks on ships sailing off its coast after Israel launched the war on Gaza, disrupting global commerce and setting the US military on a costly campaign to intercept missiles and drones that burned through air defence stocks.