Israeli forces unleashed a series of strikes on the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and the western city of Hodeidah on Thursday, killing at least six people and injuring dozens more, the Iran-backed Houthis said in a statement where it vowed to retaliate. The strike on Sanaa International Airport killed at least three people and injured 30 others, the Houthi-run 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 of Sanaa, at least three people were killed and ten others were wounded in the attack on Hodeidah, reported the Houthi-run al-Masirah television. The strikes hit the ports of Hodeidah and Ras Issa, and the Ras Kutub power station in Hodeidah Governorate, the Houthis added. The strikes injured at least 40 people in total, the Houthis said, calling the attack "a brutal aggression" as it vowed revenge. Hezam al-Asad, a member of the Houthi political council, threatened Israel in a post in Hebrew on X, saying "Gush Dan is no longer safe." Gush Dan is a metropolitan area in central Israel that includes Tel Aviv and the towns and cities around it. 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. These military targets were used by the Iran-backed Houthis "to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region and for the entry of senior Iranian officials," the Israeli military said in a statement. 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. 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. Since Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza started in October last year, the country has come under fire from missiles and rockets from Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, both Iran-backed militant groups, as well as from Iran itself. Almost all of the projectiles have been intercepted by Israel's air defenses. The Houthis have for months targeted ships in the Red Sea, one of the world's busiest waterways, calling the attacks a response to the war in Gaza. The Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah are all part of an Iran-led alliance spanning much of the region that has attacked Israel and its allies since the war began last year. They say they won't stop striking Israel and its allies until a ceasefire is reached in the Palestinian enclave. Following Thursday's strikes, the Houthis stressed that its support for people in the Gaza Strip "will continue until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege on its people is lifted." — CNN
