KUMASI, Dec 27 (Futball Surgery)- Yemen armed group Houthi claims to have struck, with a missile, Israel’s Ben Gurion airport and launched a drone attack on Tel Aviv early Friday in retaliation to Israeli airstrikes across Sana’a including the Sana’a International Airport Thursday.
Houthi’s claim has gained some iota of truth after Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said their defence systems intercepted the ballistic missile before it hit Israeli airspace, though residents in the centre of the country were ordered into shelters for fear of falling debris. But Israel has not confirmed any drone attack on Tel Aviv.
Both Middle East countries have been into hot exchange of airstrikes beginning with Houthi that launched attacks on Israel and Israeli shipping, according to the Guardian, where the labelled-rebel group said they were acting in solidarity with Palestine during the start of Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.
Since Israel’s Thursday strikes that captured World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who was about to board a plane at the Sana’a airport, Houthi has vowed to hit back and now claims to have acted in that direction towards Israeli airspace.
“When the attacks on the Sana’a airport happened, [Tedros] and several UN colleagues were having their passports stamped before heading to the UN plane,” Margaret Harris, a WHO spokesperson, said. “They were evacuated by UN security to take shelter in UN-marked vehicles. They remained in the UN-marked vehicles until the bombing stopped, at which time the UN team left the airport and went to a safer place.”
As battlefield attacks increase, verbal actions of both ends increase or the correspondent verbal beats lead to real action on the ground.
After Israel’s latest strike, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israeli strikes on Yemen would continue, saying Israel’s aim in Yemen was the elimination of the Houthi threat, which he called a “terrorist entity in Iran’s axis of evil”.
“We will persist until we complete the job,” Netanyahu said.
In return, A Houthi statement on Friday said Israel’s strikes “will only increase the determination and resolve of the great Yemeni people to continue supporting the Palestinian people”.
According to Israeli press accounts on Thursday strike, 25 fighter jets took part in 2,000km sorties that hit an array of targets across Yemen. The primary target was Sana’a international airport, where the attack left the top of the control tower a bombed-out shell and shattered windows in terminal buildings. Airport authorities said four people were killed and 20 injured.
The air force also struck the Hezyaz power station south of Sana’a on Thursday, as well as the port, an oil terminal and power station around Hodeidah, where facilities were used “to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region and for the entry of senior Iranian officials”, according to Israeli statement.
Houthi media said ‘a total of six people were killed in the strikes’ across the capital.
All these attacks Israel says is to harm those harm the country and to remove threats to state Israel. Houthi first harmed Israel in solidarity for Palestinians.
“As we have said – whoever harms Israel, we will harm them. We will hunt down all of the Houthis’ leaders and we will strike them just as we have done in other places. Nobody will be able to evade the long arm of Israel. We will strike at them in order to remove the threats to the state of Israel,” Israel defence minister Israel Katz said after the operation in Sana’a.
