Israeli jets hit Sanaa airport and Houthi sites along Yemen coast after missile attacks
IDF confirms strikes on capital, port infrastructure in response to recent assaults on Israel, as PM vows to keep up attacks; WHO chief, in the country, says he was nearly struck
Israeli warplanes struck Houthi forces in Yemen Thursday in response to repeated ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israel which have ramped up in recent weeks, the military said.
The strikes — a mission that dozens of Israeli Air Force fighter jets took part in, alongside refuelers and spy planes — followed days of increasingly bellicose threats from Israeli leaders vowing to decimate the Iran-backed terror group after near-daily attacks.
Following Thursday’s strikes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz promised to keep pounding the group and “hunt down” its leaders.
“We are determined to cut off this terror arm of the Iranian axis of evil. We will persist in this until we complete the job,” Netanyahu said in a pre-recorded statement.
The Israel Defense Forces said that during the sortie, fighter jets struck Houthi targets along Yemen’s western coast and deeper within the country.
The targets included “infrastructure used by the Houthi terror regime for its military activities” at Sanaa International Airport, and the Hezyaz power plant just outside the Houthi-controlled capital. Planes also hit infrastructure at the Hodeida, Salif and Ras Qantib ports on the coast, including another power plant.
“These infrastructures were used by the Houthi terror regime to transfer Iranian weapons to the region and for the entry of senior Iranian officials,” the IDF said.
The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said that six people were killed in the strikes — three at the airport and three in Hodeida — while 40 others were wounded in the attacks.
Video published by Houthi-run Al Masirah TV showed extensive damage to the airport, including windows blown out in terminals and blood on the floor. The control tower appeared to have been reduced to a concrete shell.
???? مشاهد أولية من جريمة استهداف العدو الصهيوني مطار #صنعاء الدولي#فلسطين_قضيتنا_الأولى pic.twitter.com/oAMFkTIDyu
— قناة المسيرة (@TvAlmasirah) December 26, 2024
The strikes came as Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi gave a televised speech.
Later on Thursday, the Houthis said they were ready to respond quickly to the attack and meet “escalation with escalation,” Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported.
Houthi official Hezam al-Asad tweeted that Israel’s strikes “reflect the state of weakness and bankruptcy that afflicts this defeated entity.”
The Houthi leadership has stepped up attacks in recent weeks following the exit of fellow Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah from the battlefield.
Following the strikes, several Israeli reports said air defenses were being put on high alert in anticipation of a potential Houthi retaliation within hours.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization’s director-general, said the bombardment occurred as he was about to board a flight in Sanaa, injuring a crew member.
“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” he said on X, adding that he and WHO colleagues were safe. “We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave.”
Our mission to negotiate the release of @UN staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation in #Yemen concluded today. We continue to call for the detainees' immediate release.
As we were about to board our flight from Sana’a, about two hours ago, the airport… pic.twitter.com/riZayWHkvf
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 26, 2024
The military said the airstrikes were approved by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, as well as by Netanyahu and Katz. According to Channel 12 news, Jerusalem updated the United States ahead of time on the targets it was about to hit.
“We saw precise action by the Israeli Air Force, hitting strategic Houthi targets in Yemen, at the airport and at the port,” Katz said in a pre-recorded message from the IAF’s underground command center at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
“As we said, whoever strikes Israel, we will strike them. We will also hunt down all the Houthi leaders, hit them as we have done elsewhere,” he added.
Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar told officers at the IAF’s underground command center: “We have just seen a tangible demonstration of what we are capable of, and we are capable of much more.”
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the strikes as a “violation” of peace and security.
“These aggressions are a clear violation of international peace and security and an undeniable crime against the heroic and noble people of Yemen, who have not spared any effort to support the oppressed people of Palestine against the occupation and genocide,” said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei in a statement.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres claimed Thursday’s airstrikes were “especially alarming” after “a year of escalatory actions by the Houthis,” according a UN spokesperson.
Guterres is concerned about the risk of further escalation, and is calling for all parties concerned to cease military actions and exercise utmost restraint, the spokesperson said, adding: “He also warns that airstrikes on Red Sea ports and Sanaa airport pose grave risks to humanitarian operations at a time when millions of people are in need of life-saving assistance.”
Thursday’s strikes marked the fourth time Israeli jets have attacked the Houthis in Yemen. It came nearly a week after Israeli jets carried out intense strikes along the Yemen coast and hit Sanaa for the first time.
Since December 16, the Houthis have launched five ballistic missiles and at least five drones at Israel, in what the terror group says is a campaign in support of Gaza amid Israel’s ongoing war there against the Hamas terror group. Many of the attacks occurred in the middle of the night, forcing millions in the Tel Aviv area to rush for shelter. A number of people have suffered injuries while trying to reach safety.
The Houthis, a rebel group that is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and Jews, have launched more than 200 missiles and 170 drones at Israel in the past year, according to the IDF.
The vast majority did not reach Israel or were intercepted by the military or Israel’s allies in the region, the army says.
On Saturday, air defenses failed to stop a Houthi missile that struck a park in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv, lightly injuring 16 people in surrounding buildings. Days earlier, a ballistic missile fired toward Tel Aviv hit a school in the suburb of Ramat Gan, destroying it. The building was empty at the time.
The Iran-backed group has also carried out repeated missile and drone attacks on some 100 merchant vessels attempting to traverse the Red Sea, forcing many carriers to avoid the key waterway and hamstringing global shipping. The Houthis initially said they were going to attack Israel-linked ships but few of the vessels targeted had ties to Israel.
The Houthis have vowed to keep up the attacks until the end of the war in the Gaza Strip that began on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage to Gaza. Israel is battling to destroy Hamas in Gaza and save the hostages.
The US military has recently targeted the Houthis in Yemen.
Reports in Israel in recent days have indicated widespread pessimism among defense officials and others that the strikes will have an effect on halting the Houthi attacks without joint action from the US or other major allies. According to several reports, Mossad chief David Barnea and other senior security officials have pushed in recent meetings for Israel to instead strike Iran, which supplies the Houthis with weapons and other support.
