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Israel attacks Yemen's international airport
Yemenis watch as smoke billows following Israeli airstrikes targeting a power plant and Sanaa Airport, in Sanaa, Yemen, May 6, 2025

ISRAEL’S military said today that it had fully disabled the international airport in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital with a series of air attacks.

Tel Aviv said that it had also hit several power plants across the country.

The attacks, the second in two days, came in retaliation for a Yemeni missile strike the previous day on Israel’s international airport.

The satellite news channel al-Masirah reported the strikes, confirming that the airport had been hit.

Footage aired on Israeli television showed thick black plumes of smoke rising above the skyline of Sanaa.

Social media video purported to show multiple strikes around Sanaa, with black smoke rising as the thumps of the blast echoed against the surrounding mountains.

There was no immediate information on any casualties.

Tuesday’s strike came shortly after the Israeli military issued a warning on social media for people to evacuate the area of Yemen’s international airport.

“We urge you to immediately evacuate the area of the airport and to warn anyone nearby to distance themselves immediately,” IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on social media, attaching a map of Sanaa International Airport. “Failure to evacuate the area endangers your lives.”

On Monday night, Israel targeted Yemen’s Red Sea province of Hodeida, killing at least one person and wounding 35. 

The Yemeni media office said at least six strikes hit Hodeida port. Others hit a cement factory in the district of Bajil, 34 miles north-east of Hodeida, the Yemenis said. 

Yemen’s Health Ministry said that the strikes killed at least four people and wounded 39 others.

The Yemenis launched a missile on Sunday that penetrated Israel’s missile defence systems to strike the grounds of Israel’s main airport, Ben Gurion, since the October 2023 start of the war in Gaza. It prompted a flurry of flight cancellations. 

The Houthis have targeted Israel in solidarity with Palestinians under attack by the Israelis in the Gaza Strip.

United States President Donald Trump has ordered an intensified campaign of air attacks on Yemen since March 15 after the Yemenis recommenced their blockade of the Red Sea in response to Israel abandoning the ceasefire deal reached with Hamas.

Israel has repeatedly struck against the Yemenis. It struck Hodeida and its oil infrastructure in July after a Yemeni drone attack killed one person and wounded 10 in Tel Aviv.

In September, Israel struck Hodeida again, killing at least four people after a missile targeted Ben Gurion airport as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was returning to the country. In December, Israeli strikes killed at least nine people in Hodeida.

 

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