Israel’s military says it struck multiple targets linked to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, including Sanaa International Airport and three ports along the western coast.
The attacks carried out on Thursday hit Yemen’s Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations as well as military infrastructure in the ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Kanatib, the military said.
The attacks on Sanaa airport and Hodeidah power station were also reported by Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthis.
Yemeni journalist Hussain al-Bukhaiti told Al Jazeera the attack on the airport in the capital Sanaa targeted one of its control towers, disrupting operations.
“All Israeli attacks … whether its against Yemen or Gaza, they [Yemeni forces] will treat as an escalation. And I believe … the Yemeni army may conduct a major attack against Israel,” he said.
Mohammed al-Attab, another journalist from Yemen who spoke to Al Jazeera, said this was not the first time Israeli forces had attacked the Sanaa airport.
“The airport has been bombed on more than one occasion … and has been rehabilitated,” he said, adding that there were no reports of casualties so far.
Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he and his United Nations colleagues were ready to board a plane at Sanaa Airport when it come under bombardment.
“One of our plane’s crew members was injured. At least two people were reported killed at the airport. The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” he said in a post on X.
“My UN and WHO colleagues and I are safe,” he added. Tedros said the UN and WHO teams were in the country “to negotiate the release of UN staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation in Yemen”.
The strikes came a day after Yemen’s Houthis, who control northwestern Yemen, including Sanaa and its Red Sea coast, fired a ballistic missile and two drones towards Israel. Over the weekend, 16 people were wounded when a Houthi missile hit a playground in Tel Aviv.
Last week, Israeli jets struck Sanaa and Hodeidah, killing nine people, calling it a response to previous Houthi attacks.
Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, said Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Defence Minister Israel Katz have both previously said “Yemen will pay a price” for the recent attacks on Israel.
“You are looking at least five different incidents in which there were missiles fired by the Houthis into Israeli airspace, one of them actually making impact in Tel Aviv,” she said.
On Saturday, a Houthi missile attack wounded 16 people in Tel Aviv. The incident prompted a warning from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said he ordered the destruction of Houthi infrastructure.
Netanyahu on Thursday said the strikes on Yemen would continue “until the job is done”.
“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.
Houthi fighters have targeted Israel and ships linked to it in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since Israel launched its genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023, after a Hamas-led attack on Israel, which killed 1,139 people.
The Houthis said they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where more than 45,000 people, mostly children and women, have been killed by Israeli forces.