Israel’s military launched a series of strikes against multiple targets linked to the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The attacks, which took place on Thursday, targeted Sanaa International Airport and three ports along the western coast. The military infrastructure in the ports of Hodeidah, Salif, and Ras Kanatib were also hit.
According to the military, the attacks also targeted Yemen’s Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations. Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthis, reported that the attacks on Sanaa airport and Hodeidah power station caused significant damage.
Yemeni journalist Hussain al-Bukhaiti told Al Jazeera that the attack on the airport in the capital Sanaa targeted one of its control towers, disrupting operations. “All Israeli attacks … whether its against Yemen or Gaza, they [Yemeni forces] will treat as an escalation. And I believe … the Yemeni army may conduct a major attack against Israel,” he said.
Mohammed al-Attab, another journalist from Yemen, said that this was not the first time Israeli forces had attacked the Sanaa airport. “The airport has been bombed on more than one occasion … and has been rehabilitated,” he said, adding that there were no reports of casualties so far.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that he and his United Nations colleagues were at Sanaa Airport when it came under bombardment. “One of our plane’s crew members was injured. At least two people were reported killed at the airport. The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” he said in a post on X.
Tedros added that the UN and WHO teams were in the country “to negotiate the release of UN staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation in Yemen”. The strikes came a day after Yemen’s Houthis fired a ballistic missile and two drones towards Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the strikes on Yemen would continue “until the job is done”. “We are determined to cut this branch of terrorism from the Iranian axis of evil. We will continue until the job is done,” he said in a video statement.
