Israeli bombing in Sanaa Photo: Osamah Abdulrahman / AP / Profimedia
Three people were killed and 11 wounded in attacks carried out by Israel on Thursday in Sanaa International Airport and in other places in Yemen controlled by the Houthi rebels, the insurgents announced on their Telegram channel, according to AFP, taken by Agerpres.
Two people died and 11 were injured in Sanaa airport, and a third was killed in the port of Ras Issa, north of Hodeidah (west), according to the same source.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who was at the Sanaa airport during the Israeli bombing on Thursday, reported damage to the infrastructure, but indicated on the social network X that it was “safe”. A crew member on Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ plane “was injured,” he said, adding that the other UN and WHO crew members accompanying him “are safe.”
⚡️BREAKING: Israel bombs Yemen.
Israel Broadcasting Authority: Targeted sites in Yemen are Sanaa Airport, Hodeidah Port and energy and oil facilities.
Israeli Army Radio, citing a military source: The attacks in Yemen are not like previous attacks. I am part of… pic.twitter.com/YraTUh03c3
– News suppressed. (@SuppressedNws) December 26, 2024
Tedros is part of a delegation that traveled to Yemen to try to secure the release of 17 UN members who have been held, some since 2021, others since June, by the Houthi rebels.
Airstrikes on Thursday targeted several locations in Yemen, including Sanaa International Airport and a power plant, under the control of Houthi rebels, according to witnesses and insurgents.
Retaliation after the Houthi attacks
The Israeli army announced in turn that it had hit “military targets” of the Houthi rebels in Yemen, which it accuses of being “at the center of the axis of Iranian terror”. “The warplanes hit military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime on the western coast of Yemen and in the interior,” the army said in a statement.
“The targets hit include the military infrastructure used by the Houthis at the Sanaa International Airport and the Hezyz and Ras Katanib power plants,” the Israeli military added. The army also specified that “it also hit the military infrastructure in the ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Katanib, on the west coast.”
The army said it was responding to “repeated attacks” by Yemeni rebels “against the State of Israel and its citizens.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the series of attacks by the Israeli army in Yemen that his country will continue to hit the Houthi rebels “until the job is done”. “We are determined to remove this terrorist branch from the Iranian axis of evil. We will continue until the job is finished,” he said in a video released by his office.
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which is at war with Israel in the Gaza Strip, on Thursday condemned the Israeli attacks against the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“Hamas condemns the brutal terrorist aggression carried out by the Zionist enemy against our brothers in Yemen, targeting civilian sites, including Sanaa airport and the port of Hodeidah,” the movement said in a statement. “This attack is a continuation of the anarchy and terrorism of the (Israeli) occupation government against the Palestinian people and other peoples in the region,” Hamas added.
Iran, in turn, condemned the Israeli attacks against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, calling it an “assassination”. “These aggressions constitute a clear violation of international peace and security and a crime against the heroic people of Yemen, who have spared no effort to support the oppressed people of Palestine in the face of occupation and genocide,” he said. said the spokesman of the Ministry of Iran. Stranger, Esmaeil Baqaei.
