Israeli Jets Obliterate Yemen’s Main Airport Following Houthis’ Weekend Attack on Ben Gurion at Tel Aviv
The IDF pilots were making their two-and-a-half-hour journey back home after destroying runways, the control tower, and reportedly all planes on the ground.
Israeli jets on Tuesday paralyzed Yemen’s Sanaa airport, the Houthis’ gateway to the world, in a major strike coordinated with Washington.
Flying the jets more than 1,700 miles from its bases, the Israel Defense Force operation followed a Houthi attack that saw a ballistic missile penetrate the country’s defenses and explode near Ben Gurion international airport. While the Saturday missile attack caused no significant damage, Israelis fear that commercial airlines will now rethink flying to the country’s gateway to the world.
The IDF pilots were making their two-and-a-half-hour journey back home after destroying the Sanaa runways, its control tower, and reportedly all planes on the ground. The strike came an hour after an IDF spokesman, Avichay Adraee, issued an Arabic-language videotape warning anyone at the airport to evacuate.
The Israeli fighter jets also followed up on a Monday strike, demolishing a second top Houthi concrete factory.
“The Houthis use concrete to build tunnels for underground missile launching pads, and for their top commanders to hide in,” a senior military analyst at Israel’s N12 television, Nir Dvori, said. While a Houthi spokesman acknowledged that the Israeli strike on the airport was a significant blow, few in Israel believe that it will end the Houthi aggression against the country.
“Our target bank in Israel goes beyond the Tel Aviv airport,” the Houthi spokesman, Yahya Saree, boasted after the attack. Israeli and American defense batteries have managed to intercept almost daily missile launches from Yemen, but as the Saturday strike at Ben Gurion showed, no anti-missile system is hermetic.
Israelis increasingly say that hitting Yemen is not enough, and that the Houthis’ Iranian patrons must answer for the constant launches.
“There’s a difference between a full attack on the nuclear facilities and striking Houthi-related targets in Iran,” an opposition Knesset member and former fighter pilot, Matan Kahana, said. Other Israelis say that the country and America should bolster the anti-Houthi Yemeni army to serve as boots on the ground that must complement Israeli and American air attacks.
