UPDATE 3 – Israeli attacks hit Sanaa airport in Yemeni capital

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS, CHANGES DECK

By Omar Alothmani and Rania Abu Shamala

ISTANBUL (AA) – Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes on Sanaa airport in the Yemeni capital on Tuesday, shortly after ordering residents to evacuate the area, the Houthi group said.

The Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV said several strikes targeted the airport. Warplanes also hit power stations in the districts of Dhahaban, Asr, Hezyaz, and Attan area in Sanaa, it said.

The broadcaster said Israeli airstrikes also hit a cement factory in Amran province near Sanaa.

The channel said at least three people were killed and 35 others injured in the Israeli strikes.

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee confirmed the airstrikes, claiming that they targeted Houthi infrastructure at the airport.

The spokesman said attacks also targeted power stations in Sanaa and a cement factory in the nearby Amran province.

Ahead of the attacks, the Israeli army ordered Yemeni residents near the Sanaa airport to immediately evacuate the area.

At least four people were killed and dozens injured on Monday in joint Israeli-US strikes in the coastal province of Al-Hudaydah, a day after a Houthi missile strike hit Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv a day earlier.

The Houthi group called its missile strike on the Ben Gurion Airport a “warning” to international airlines that the Israeli airport is “unsafe for civilian aviation.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to respond militarily to Yemen and Iran following the attack.

Yemen has faced an intensified US military campaign since mid-March, including around 1,300 air and naval strikes, resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties, according to the Houthi group.

The Houthis have targeted ships passing through the Red and Arabian seas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden since November 2023 in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where over 52,600 people have been killed in a brutal Israeli assault for more than 19 months, most of them women and children.

The group halted attacks when a Gaza ceasefire was declared in January between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, but resumed them after Israel's renewed airstrikes on Gaza in March.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.