Israel launches intense airstrikes on Yemen's Sanaa, ports, vows to kill Houthi leaders

ADEN, Yemen/JERUSALEM -- Israel vowed on Thursday to kill Houthi leaders and dismantle the group's military power shortly after it launched "intelligence-based" airstrikes targeting Houthi-controlled military targets on Yemen's western coast and inland Yemen.

"We are determined to cut off this terror arm of the Iranian axis of evil," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "We will persist until the task is complete."

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz pledged to "hunt down all the Houthi leaders and strike them, just as we have done elsewhere".

"No one will escape Israel's long arm. We will strike them to eliminate threats against Israel," he added.

Netanyahu and Katz made the remarks in a joint video statement recorded at the Air Force Command Center in Tel Aviv, where they had arrived to observe the airstrikes.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military said it launched "intelligence-based" airstrikes targeting Houthi-controlled military targets on Yemen's western coast and inland Yemen.

The Israeli warplanes hit Houthi-used infrastructures in the Sanaa International Airport, and the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations, both located in Houthi-controlled areas, as well as the ports of Hodeidah, Salif, and Ras Kanatib on the western coast, the military said in a statement, claiming that those sites were used by Houthis to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region and for the entry of senior Iranian officials.

Footage circulating on social media showed large explosions, with black smoke and fire rising above buildings in Yemen.

The strikes were carried out based on an assessment that Houthi forces intended to escalate their attacks on Israel and shipping routes, reported Israel's state-owned Kan TV earlier in the day.

Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV said Thursday that the Israeli attack on the Sanaa International Airport has killed three people and wounded 16 others.

The Israeli airstrike on the port of Hodeidah, which hit the Ras Isa oil terminal, meanwhile, killed one person, and three others remain missing, the TV added.

An official of the Houthis told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that 10 Israeli airstrikes destroyed fighter jets and helicopters stationed inside the al-Dailami Air Force Base adjoining the airport, which has been rendered non-operational.

In the meantime, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on social media platform X that the Sanaa International Airport came under aerial bombardment as he and some other UN and WHO officials were about to board their flight from Yemen's capital Sanaa.

"One of our plane's crew members was injured. At least two people were reported killed at the airport. The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged," he said.

Noting that he and his colleagues are safe, the WHO chief said they will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before they can leave.