A day after fresh air strikes on the Houthi-held capital Sanaa, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen early Saturday.
“A missile launched from Yemen was intercepted before it could enter Israeli territory,” the Israeli military said, as sirens sounded in Jerusalem and the Dead Sea areas on Saturday.
A day earlier, there was a fresh airstrike on Sanaa, which the Houthi rebels blamed on “American-British aggression”, although it was not clear who was behind it.
There was no comment from Israel, the United States or Britain.
“I heard an explosion. My house shook,” a Sanaa resident told AFP late Friday.
The Iran-backed Houthis took control of large parts of Yemen after capturing Sanaa in 2014 and ousting the government.
Since the war in Gaza broke out in October last year, the Houthis, who claim solidarity with the Palestinians, have fired a series of missiles and drones at Israel.
They have stepped up their attacks since a ceasefire in November between Israel and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed group in Lebanon.
Israel has also attacked Yemen, including targeting Sanaa’s international airport on Thursday, just as the head of the World Health Organization was about to board a plane.
The Houthis have also attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea, prompting retaliatory strikes by the United States and sometimes Britain.
Earlier on Friday, before the attack on Sanaa, thousands of people gathered to protest and express solidarity with Palestinians.
“The equation has changed and become: (targeting) airport for airport, port for port, and infrastructure for infrastructure,” Houthi supporter Mohammed al-Ghobisi said.
“We will never tire or get bored of supporting our brothers in Gaza.”
The war in Gaza began in October. On January 7, 2023, a Hamas terrorist attack on Israel killed approximately 1,200 people and captured 250 hostages.
Gaza health officials say at least 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli counterattacks, more than half of them women and children, while Israel says thousands of Hamas fighters are among the dead.
Hamas has been designated a terrorist group by the United States, Britain, and other Western countries.
airport damaged
Israel’s attack on Sanaa International Airport on Thursday shattered windows and left a bomb shell on top of the control tower.
A witness told AFP that the raid also targeted the nearby al-Dailaimi airport, which shares the airport’s runway.
Houthi Deputy Transport Minister Yahya al-Sayani said, “The attack has so far killed four people and injured about 20 among staff, airport and passengers.”
It happened as the head of the UN’s World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was preparing to fly out, and a UN crew member was injured.
Tedros was in Yemen to demand the release of UN staff detained for months by the Houthis and to assess the humanitarian situation. He later posted on social media that he had reached Jordan safely with his team.
He said the injured member of the UN Humanitarian Air Service “underwent successful surgery and is now in stable condition.”
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether they knew at the time that the WHO chief was there.
An Israeli statement said its targets included “military infrastructure” at the airport and power stations in Sanaa and Hodeida – a major entry point for humanitarian aid – as well as other facilities at several ports.
The statement said the Houthis use these sites “for smuggling of Iranian weapons into the region and the entry of senior Iranian officials”.
But UN humanitarian coordinator Julian Harnis said the airport was “a civilian space” also used by the UN, and the attacks came as “a packed civilian plane from Yemenia Air, carrying hundreds of Yemenis, was about to land.” Was.”
However, the plane “was able to land safely … it could have been much, much worse,” Harnis said.
In his latest warning to the Houthis, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s attacks “will continue until the job is done.”
“We are committed to cutting off this branch of terrorism from the Iranian axis of evil,” he said in a video statement.
Despite the damage, flights at Sanaa airport resumed at 10 a.m. Friday (0700 GMT), Deputy Transport Minister Sayani said.
Yemenis depend on aid
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the increase in hostilities and said bombing of transport infrastructure threatened humanitarian operations in Yemen, where 80% of the population depends on aid.
The United Nations has called Yemen “the world’s largest humanitarian crisis”, with 24.1 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and protection.
Harnis, the UN humanitarian coordinator, said the airport was “absolutely vital” to continuing aid transport to Yemen.
“If that airport becomes disabled, it will paralyze humanitarian operations.”
After the attack on Sanaa airport, the Houthis said they fired a missile at Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv and launched drones at the city and a ship in the Arabian Sea.
The Israeli military said the same day that a missile launched from Yemen had been intercepted.
“Israeli aggression will increase the determination and resolve of the great Yemeni people to continue supporting the Palestinian people,” a Houthi statement said Friday.