By Mohammed Ghobari
ADEN (Reuters) – The Israeli military carried out an airstrike on Yemen’s main airport in Sanaa on Tuesday, its second attack in two days on Iran-aligned Houthi rebels after a surge in tensions between the group and Israel.
Three people were killed in the strike, according to Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV.
Israel warned people to leave the area around Sanaa International Airport before Tuesday’s attack, which it said targeted Houthi infrastructure and “fully disabled the airport”. Witnesses later reported four strikes in the capital.
Tensions have been high since the Gaza war began, but have risen further since a Houthi missile landed near Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday, prompting Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s Hodeidah port on Monday.
“A short while ago, IDF (Israel Defence Forces) fighter jets struck and dismantled Houthi terrorist infrastructure at the main airport in Sanaa, fully disabling the airport,” the Israeli military said.
“The strike was carried out in response to the attack launched by the Houthi terrorist regime against Ben Gurion Airport. Flight runways, aircraft, and infrastructure at the airport were struck.”
Three airport sources told Reuters that the strikes targeted three civilian airplanes, the departures hall, the airport runway and a military air base under Houthi control.
The Israeli military said the airport had been “a central hub for the Houthi terrorist regime to transfer weapons and operatives.”
In a statement carried by al-Masirah, the Houthis said:
“The operations of our armed forces will continue and the support by Yemen to Palestine will only end with the end of the aggression and siege against Gaza.”
The United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg said on X that the latest hostilities “mark a grave escalation in an already fragile and volatile regional context”.
An official at Yemen’s flag carrier Yemenia Airways told Reuters that three of its aircraft were destroyed according to an initial assessment.
‘AXIS OF RESISTANCE’
The Houthis have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea since Israel began its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza after the Palestinian militant group’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The Houthis say they are doing so in solidarity with the Palestinians and have pressed on with attacks in response to Israel expanding its military operations in the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis said on Sunday they would impose a “comprehensive” aerial blockade on Israel by repeatedly targeting its airports.
Sixty percent of Yemenis live under the control of the Houthis, a resilient group that withstood years of Saudi-led bombing during the country’s devastating civil war.
The Houthis are part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” against Israeli and U.S. interests in the Middle East, which also includes Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
While Israel has weakened those groups by assassinating top leaders and destroying military infrastructure since the Gaza war began, the Houthis are still a force to be reckoned with.
The Israeli strikes around Hodeidah on Monday killed four people and wounded 39, the Houthi-run health ministry said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed to retaliate after the missile launched by the Houthis landed near Ben Gurion Airport and led to European and U.S. airlines cancelling flights.
(Additional reporting by Tala Ramadan and Ahmed Elimam in Dubai and Menna Alaa El Din; Writing by Ahmed Elimam and Michael Georgy; Editing by Ros Russell, Timothy Heritage and Gareth Jones)
