Israel destroys Houthis' final aircraft in strike on Saana International Airport
Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel was in the process of instituting an aerial and naval blockade on the Houthis.
The IDF on Wednesday attacked Yemen's Sanaa international airport in response to several Houthi ballistic missile attacks fired against Israel over the last week.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the air force had destroyed the last airplane that the Houthis still had to use at the airport - this after Israel had attacked the airport already multiple times in the past several months.
Further, Katz said that Israel had or was in the process of instituting an aerial and naval blockade on the Houthis to try to deter them from future attacks on the Jewish state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also confirmed the Israeli strike.
The prime minister said, "Anyone who doesn't understand this through force – will understand it through even greater force."
"But as I have said many times – the Houthis are just the symptom. The main force behind them is Iran, and it is responsible for the aggression coming from Yemen."
To date, the Houthis have fired well over 400 times at Israel since the start of the war, using a mix of ballistic missiles and drones.
Although only one Israeli was killed by a drone in July 2024, the missiles have significantly disrupted the fabric of life in Israel, often requiring millions of Israelis to dash into safe rooms, and also causing many international airlines to pull out of flying to Israel, especially after a near miss of Ben Gurion Airport earlier this month.
Until July 2024, the IDF left responding to the Houthis to the US, but since then Jerusalem has ordered around 10 strikes on Houthi assets at its Port of Hodeidah, at the Sanaa airport, at other ports, and against some electrical facilities.
There was also a brief period of months earlier in 2025 when the Trump administration was striking the Houthis harder, but after reaching a deal with the Yemen terror group that it would stop attacking US shipping, Washington left Israel on its own versus the Houthis.
The Houthis also did not fire on Israel during the January 19 to early March ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The two main ways that top Israeli officials believe the Houthis can be stopped from firing on Israel are either by another ceasefire with Hamas, or if the Houthis' Sunni opponents in Yemen can be helped to dethrone them from control of much of the country.
However, without US support for such a move, few think Israel can project sufficient power to help the Houthis' Sunni opponents gain the upper hand.
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