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Israeli warplanes attacked Yemen’s Sana’a airport, destroying its runway and parked aircraft in a second day of retaliatory strikes for a Houthi missile that exploded close to Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv on Sunday.
The Israeli military said it had “fully disabled” the international airport, hitting the runway, aircraft and other infrastructure about two hours after issuing a warning to civilians to clear the area.
It said it had also struck several power plants and a concrete factory it claimed was used by Houthi militants to reinforce underground tunnels.
Video on social media showed large fireballs arcing through the afternoon sky. No death toll was immediately available, but widespread power outages were reported, and at least one civilian aircraft was reportedly on fire at the airport.
A Houthi-linked social media account threatened a retaliatory attack on a factory near Haifa, in northern Israel.
Tuesday’s Israeli attack followed large-scale strikes on Monday from 20 Israeli warplanes that targeted Yemen’s Hodeidah port complex on the Red Sea, as well as a nearby concrete factory. The IDF claimed these were important sources of income for the Iran-backed Yemeni militant group, and gateways for the transfer of Iranian weapons.
The two days of attacks came in retaliation for a ballistic missile that landed inside the grounds of Ben Gurion international airport on Sunday, injuring four people.
While the hub quickly resumed services, several airlines have suspended flights to Israel as the Houthi rebels boasted about piercing Israel’s multi-layered air defences, including the Iron Dome and US-provided THAAD missile defence system.
The IDF said the likely cause of the failure was “a technical issue with the interceptor launched towards the missile”, and not any larger systemic malfunction.
The Israeli strikes mark the sixth time the country’s warplanes have launched long-range sorties against Houthi rebels in Yemen since last summer.
The Houthi attacks have severely disrupted shipping through one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes and prompted a separate air campaign by the US military — which has escalated over the past two months under President Donald Trump.
The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, have said they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians amid the war in Gaza triggered by Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack on Israel.
The Yemeni rebels have fired at least 17 ballistic missiles at Israel since March, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abandoned a ceasefire with Hamas and restarted Israel’s offensive in Gaza.