Last Sunday, Yemen’s hutis launched an Earth-Earth missile against the main Israel airport. Exceptionally, the Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Katz, promised an “seven times stronger” and the head of government, Benjamín Netanyahu, who would arrive “at the right time” in both Yemen and in Iran, the main support of the hutis, would exceptional. The retaliation began on Monday, with an attack on the port of Hodeida that killed four people, according to health authorities; And he has continued, more powerfully, this Tuesday, against the airport and other points of Saná, according to the Israel Army, which an hour before had ordered the immediate evacuation of the Aerodrome of the Yemeni capital, controlled by the Hutis. Something unpublished in Yemen, unlike
In the images of the attack broadcast on television to Masira, linked to the Hutí militia, you can see large columns of gray smoke on the airport and other places in Saná. Witnesses cited by the Reuters agency talk about four impacts. The authorities have not yet informed of victims. Al Masira mentions two other objectives: a cement factory and an electric station.
Twenty combat planes
An hour earlier, the Israeli army spokesman in the Arab language, Avijai Adree, spread the following message on their social networks: “To all those present in the area of the Saná International Airport, and for their safety. We ask them to evacuate the area immediately and that they warn everyone around the need to do so immediately. Do not evacuate it or move away from the place. He was accompanied by an aerial image of the place marked in red. The Israeli army also reported that about 20 combat planes participated in the previous bombings, on Monday.
The hutis form a rebel movement that controls about a third of Yemen’s territory. After Gaza’s invasion following the Hamas attack of October 2023, they broke into the conflict “in solidarity with the Palestinian brothers. They ended up acquiring an unusual prominence in the Middle East, because of the strategic asset granted by the geography of being able to harass merchant ships in the Red Sea. A coalition of countries joined to avoid it.
It is also, unlike the Lebanese Hezbollah (and other militias to Iran in Iraq or Syria. The hutis stopped throwing drones and missiles during the high fire in Gaza, but they did so last March, when Netanyahu, water or medications to the Palestinian enclave. Then, he broke the truce.
The Yemeni militia has been shooting missiles every week (even two in the same day) against Israel. They were always intercepted by the defenses, with the active support of the USA. Until the impact of Sunday, nothing far from the takeoff zone, which led to more than 15 airlines (Iberia, Air Europa, Lufthansa, Delta, United Airlines, Wizzair, etc.) to temporarily cancel its flights to Tel Aviv. That same day, the hutis urged the airlines to convert the measure to permanent, “taking into consideration” that are prepared to firing frequently against Israel’s airports. They call it “complete air blocking”, in response to the decision of the Netanyahu Executive who approved a day later.
