Israel strikes Sanaa airport, power stations, ports in Yemen

Israel struck several sites in Yemen on Thursday including the international airport serving the capital Sanaa and the adjacent al-Dailami Air Base.

Houthi Al Masirah TV reported that the Israeli strikes killed three, including two in the strike on Sanaa International Airport. Eleven more were injured, it added.

Tedros Ghebreyesus, director general of the United Nations' World Health Organization, said the strikes prevented a mission negotiating the release of UN staff detainees from leaving Yemen.

"As we were about to board our flight from Sanaa, about two hours ago, the airport came under aerial bombardment," Ghebreyesus said online, adding that a member of the UN's plane crew was injured. "We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave."

What do we know so far? 

"Air Force fighter jets recently attacked, under the direction of the Intelligence Branch, terrorist targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the western coastal strip and deep inside Yemen," the IDF said. 

The Israeli military said it was targeting "infrastructure used by the Houthi terrorist regime for its military activities at the international airport in Sanaa and the Aziz and Ras Qantib power stations." It also targeted infrastructure "at the ports of Hodeidah, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib on the western coast of Yemen."

It said the sites were used "to transfer Iranian weapons" or to receive senior visiting officials from Iran.

Yemeni media had earlier reported explosions and airstrikes at these sites, with a Houthi spokesman blaming "Israeli aggression." 

Netanyahu indicated infrastructure strikes after Tel Aviv missile attack

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on the Israeli strikes in brief on Thursday.

"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 in Hebrew.

On Saturday,  a Houthi missile attack wounded 16 people near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. 

Netanyahu later told the Knesset parliament that he had told the military to plan attacks on Yemeni infrastructure used by the Houthis. 

"I have instructed our forces to destroy the infrastructure of Houthis because anyone who tries to harm us will be struck with full force," Netanyahu had said.

Houthis firing on Israel and Red Sea shipping amid Gaza conflict

Yemen's Houthis, who have controlled most of the country since seizing power during 2014 and early 2015, have become more militarily active amid Israel's military operations in Gaza. 

They occasionally strike at Israel, fairly far to the north of Yemen, but have also repeatedly attacked commercial shipping closer to home in the Red Sea, usually claiming that it is linked to or assisting Israel. They say their strikes aim to support Palestinians amid the ongoing war in Gaza, where local health authorities say over 45,300 have thus far been killed.

The attacks on commercial shipping prompted international military deployments in the Red Sea in a bid to make the core shipping lane safe again. Strikes by US forces or their allies on targets inside Yemen are therefore also quite common at present.

Israel's military operations in Gaza started after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 terror attacks on the country, which killed 1,200, with some 250 taken hostage.

msh/rmt (AFP, AP, Reuters)