The Israeli military on Thursday unleashed a significant air assault on parts of Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi militia in retaliation for the group’s frequent attacks on Israel, in what some analysts say may be turning into a long-distance war of attrition.
At least two people were killed and 11 others injured in an Israeli attack on the international airport in Sana, the Houthi-affiliated television channel reported. The report could not be independently verified. The attack also damaged the airport in the capital, a Houthi stronghold, according to initial reports.
The director of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a social media post that “the airport came under aerial bombardment” as he and other United Nations officials were about to board a plane from Sana, and that a crew member was injured.
“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” he wrote, but added that he and his W.H.O. colleagues were safe. They had been on a mission to negotiate the release of detained U.N. staff and to assess the health and humanitarian situation in Yemen, he wrote.
Two Israeli officials said they believed that Israel had no previous knowledge that the W.H.O. director would be at the airport at the time of the attack. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal matters.
The Israeli military said in a statement that in addition to the airport, the targets struck included the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations, describing them as “military infrastructure used by the Houthi terrorist regime for its military activities.” The jets also struck military infrastructure in the Al-Hudaydah, Salif and Ras Kanatib ports on Yemen’s western coast, the military said.
In a video statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Thursday: “A short while ago, the Air Force attacked targets of the Houthi terrorist organization in Yemen, both along the coast and in Sana. We are determined to cut off this terrorist arm of Iran’s axis of evil. We will persist until we get the job done.”
Military analysts have widely deemed the Houthis less of a threat than other Iran-backed militias like Hezbollah in Lebanon or Hamas in Gaza. But Israel may be turning more attention to the Houthis now as the last major Iranian proxy threatening its borders, after reaching a cease-fire agreement with Hezbollah last month and largely undermining Hamas’s ability in Gaza over more than a year of war.
Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, threatened on Thursday to “hunt all the Houthi leaders,” adding, “Nobody will be able to evade the long arm of Israel.” The two men were speaking from the Israel Air Force command and control center in Tel Aviv, sitting alongside the military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.
In response to the Israeli strike, Mohammed Abdulsalam, a Houthi spokesman, said in a statement: “The targeting of Sana International Airport and other civilian infrastructure is a Zionist crime against the entire Yemeni people.” He added, “If the Zionist enemy thinks that its crimes will deter Yemen from supporting Gaza, it is delusional.”
Israel and the Houthis, who act as the de facto government in much of northern Yemen, have traded fire since last year, when the Yemeni militia began firing rockets and drones at Israel in solidarity with Hamas shortly after the Palestinian militia in Gaza led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, prompting the war in the enclave.
On Wednesday, Mr. Netanyahu said, referring to Iran’s proxies and the toppled government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria: “The Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas, Hezbollah, the Assad regime and others have learned. And even if it takes time, this lesson will be understood across the Middle East.”
The air assault on Thursday, Israel’s fourth in Yemen over the past year, comes a week after Israeli fighter jets flew more than 1,000 miles to bomb sites in the country, including in Sana and on the port city of Salif. The Israeli military said it had struck infrastructure like power plants, as well as fuel and oil tanks.
Those strikes killed nine people, according to Al-Masirah, a TV channel affiliated with the Houthis, and came hours after Israel’s military said it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen.
The Houthis have since stepped up their efforts to strike Israel. A missile launched by the militia landed in a playground in Tel Aviv before dawn on Saturday, shattering glass and injuring multiple residents in nearby buildings. The group then launched another missile early Tuesday, hours after Israel’s defense minister suggested that his government would seek to kill the Houthis’ leaders.
That missile set off sirens in Tel Aviv and other parts of central Israel, but the Israeli military said that the country’s air defenses had successfully intercepted it outside of its territory.
Mohamed Albasha, an analyst on Yemen and founder of the Basha Report, a U.S.-based risk advisory focused on the Middle East, said the intensifying attacks between Israel and the Houthis could portend an extended conflict.
“Projections for 2025 indicate a dire year ahead for Yemen’s population as the outlook grows increasingly grim,” he said. “Israel seems intent on targeting critical infrastructure — including seaports, airports, telecommunications, banks and power stations — echoing strategies employed in its campaign against Lebanon.”
In previous attacks, Israel had struck several of the sites hit on Thursday, but the blows have not appeared to have deterred the Houthis so far. Some Israeli analysts have made the case that a direct Israeli strike against Iran, the Houthis’ backer, would be more effective than repeated attacks on Yemen.
Assaf Orion, a retired Israeli brigadier general and an international fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Israel was capable of keeping up with the exchange of blows but added, “The question is, what is the strategy?”
He noted that neither Yemen nor Iran was included in the official war goals approved by the Israeli government over the past 14 months, which focused on destroying Hamas in Gaza and securing Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
“There are no simple solutions to complex problems,” Mr. Orion said. “It depends what you are trying to achieve. In the end, this is not only a duel between Israel and the Houthis, but part of a regional and international struggle.”
In its attacks, the Houthis have also launched missiles and drones at cargo vessels crossing the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, significantly disrupting international trade, and U.S. forces struck Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday.
On Wednesday evening, the Israeli military said a drone launched from Yemen had crossed into Israeli territory and had fallen in an open area.
After the strikes on Thursday, the commander of Israel’s Air Force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, said, “We are not finished yet,” adding, “We have just seen a tangible demonstration of what we are capable of, and we are capable of much more.”
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