Israeli warplanes carried out a wave of airstrikes in Yemen on Tuesday afternoon, which the military said “completely disabled” Sanaa International Airport in the Houthi-controlled capital and hit other targets.

The strikes, for the second day in a row, came in response to the Iran-backed group’s repeated missile and drone attacks on Israel, including one missile that hit inside the grounds of Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Dozens of Israeli Air Force aircraft were involved in the strikes on Yemen on Tuesday, including fighter jets, refuelers, and spy planes. The IDF said the fighter jets dropped 50 munitions on the targets.

Sanaa International Airport, which had been hit once by the IAF before, was “completely disabled” following strikes within 15 minutes that targeted its runways, aircraft, and infrastructure, the military said.

Footage posted online showed the Israeli strikes. Houthi media said three people were killed and 38 were wounded in the strikes.

An airport official told AFP: “Three planes out of seven belonging to Yemenia Airlines were destroyed at Sanaa airport, and Sanaa International Airport was completely destroyed.”

The IDF said that the airport was used by the Houthis “for transferring weapons and operatives, and is regularly operated by the Houthi regime for terror purposes.”

An hour before the strike on the airport, the IDF issued an unprecedented “urgent” warning to civilians. In a post to X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, said, “We call upon you to evacuate the airport area immediately and warn everyone in your vicinity of the need to evacuate this area immediately.”

Additionally, the IDF said it targeted several “central” power stations near Sanaa, which it said were used by the Houthis, along with a cement factory in the city of ‘Amran, north of the capital, which it claimed was used by the group to construct infrastructure and tunnels.

The strike on the concrete factory “constitutes a blow to the regime’s economy and its........

© The Times of Israel