CNN
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Israeli forces unleashed a series of strikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa and the western city of Hodeidah on Thursday, according to Houthi-run media, killing at least four people and injuring more than a dozen others.
The strike on Sanaa International Airport killed at least three people and injured 16 others, al-Masirah television reported. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he and a United Nations team were about to get on a plane when the airport came under bombardment.
“As we were about to board our flight from Sanaa… the airport came under aerial bombardment. One of our plane’s crew members was injured,” Ghebreyesus said in a statement, adding that he and his team are safe.
“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged. We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave,” he added.
Further west, at least one person was killed in the attack on Hodeidah, reported al-Masirah television. Three people have also been reported missing in Hodeidah, and rescue and search operations are ongoing, according to al-Masirah.
The Israeli military said on Thursday it hit “military targets” belonging to Iran-backed Houthis.
“The targets that were struck by the IDF include military infrastructure used by the Houthi terrorist regime for its military activities in both the Sanaa International Airport and the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
In addition, the IDF said it had struck “military infrastructure” in the Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Kanatib ports on the western coast. CNN cannot independent verify the IDF statements.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said strikes on Yemen would not stop “until the mission is complete.” Speaking from Israel’s country’s Air Force Command Center on Thursday, he said “we will persist in severing the terror arm of Iran’s axis of evil until the mission is complete.”
In recent months, the Houthis have fired missiles at Israeli cities in what they say is in response to the Israeli offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians.
The Israeli military has repeatedly struck Yemen since launching its war in Gaza following the Hamas-led October 7 attack.
The UN delegation was in Yemen to negotiate the release of UN staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation there. On behalf of WHO, Tedros sent his condolences to the families whose loved ones lost their lives in the attack, the statement read.
Earlier on Thursday, Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said on X that Israel had struck the airport in Sanaa and other “civilian infrastructure,” condemning a “crime against the Yemeni people.”
Power plants were struck in Sanaa and Hodeidah, according to a Telegram channel associated with the Houthis.
The United States and the United Kingdom have previously struck the Houthis after the group disrupted shipping in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest waterways. The US State Department considers the Houthis to be a global terrorist organization.
Last week, a projectile fired from Yemen hit Tel Aviv, Israel’s second-largest city, injuring at least 16 people. Days before, Israel intercepted another missile launched by the Houthis, with shrapnel causing extensive damage to a school near Tel Aviv.