Rebel-held Yemen airport gets first flight since Israel strike - Region

Al-Ahram Weekly

17-05-2025

The airport in the rebel-held Yemeni capital Sanaa resumed limited commercial flights on Saturday, Huthi authorities said, after damage from Israeli air strikes forced a suspension earlier this month.
"Today we are resuming flights to and from Sanaa airport after its rehabilitation," the Huthi administration's deputy transport minister, Yahya al-Sayani, told the rebels' Al-Masirah television.
The broadcaster earlier reported the "arrival at Sanaa airport of a first Yemenia Airways flight with 136 passengers on board".
The airport, which since 2022 has handled UN humanitarian flights and a limited commercial service by Yemenia to and from Amman, was heavily bombed by Israel on May 6 in response to a Huthi missile strike on Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv.
The Sanaa airport's general director, Khaled al-Shaief, put the cost at around $500 million.
Yemenia's limited service between Sanaa and the Jordanian capital provides the sole commercial air link between rebel-held areas and the outside world.
It is an exemption from an air blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia and its allies in 2015 when they intervened to prevent the beleaguered government from being swept away by a lightning Huthi advance.
Sayani said the Huthi authorities hoped to expand the service to two flights a day "in the coming days".
The Iran-backed Huthis have carried out dozens of drone and missile attacks against Israel since the Gaza war began with Hamas's attack in October 2023.
The Yemeni rebels have also targeted Israeli-linked shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in a campaign they say is in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
On Friday, Israel bombed the Huthi-held Red Sea ports of Hodeida and Salif following three missile attacks in as many days. It threatened to target the Huthi leadership if the attacks continued.
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