Israel Defense Forces, IDF has confirmed that the Middle East country soldiers carried out massive air strikes on multiple locations in Yemen capital of Sanaa on Sunday, while Nasruddin Amer, the Chairman of Yemen’s Saba News Agency and the Vice President of the Media authority of Ansar Allah Movement that has Houthis group as one of its organisations said the air defenses were able to thwart the majority of the Israeli attacks and confronted several of its combat formations, which he said forced Israeli soldiers to retreat, with the Houthis fighters using locally manufactured air defense systems.
According toIsreal Defense Force; “Multiple military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime in Sanaa, Yemen, including a military site in which the presidency palace is located, the Adar and Hizaz power plants, and a site for storing fuel—all used for the military activity of the Houthi regime.
These strikes were carried out in response to repeated Houthi attacks on Israel with missiles and UAVs. The Houthis, backed by Iran, continue to exploit civilian infrastructure for terror purposes.
News agencies reported that Israel launched the airstrikes in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, hitting areas near the presidential complex and missile bases with additional strikes reported in Hodeidah.
It was gathered that Israel carried out the strikes in response to days of attempted Houthi drone and ballistic missile attack against Israel.
Local Media reported with a photograph showing the Israel Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister, Katz, and IDF Chief, Eyal Zamir at the Israeli Air Force command center in Tel Aviv, observing today’s strikes on Yemen capital on a military facility near the presidential palace, a fuel depot, and two power stations.
Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen’s capital on Sunday, just days after the Houthi rebels fired a missile toward Israel that its military described as the first cluster bomb the rebels had fired at it since 2023.
The rebels’ Al-Masirah satellite television reported a strike on an oil company, and video on social media showed a fireball erupting there.
Nasruddin Amer, Deputy Head of Ansar Allah’s (Houthis) Media Authority and Chairman of Yemen’s Saba News Agency, said Yemeni air defenses intercepted most of the Israeli air raids, forcing several formations to withdraw.
He stressed that Yemen’s military operations in support of Gaza will continue until the aggression ends and the blockade is lifted. Amer dismissed Israel’s targeting of a civilian fuel station in Sana’a as an act of “barbarism and bankruptcy” with no impact on military capabilities, warning it will only trigger further escalation.
In quotes, he said: “Targeting a civilian fuel station on a main street will have no impact on military operations. Thanks to God, the air defenses were able to thwart the majority of the Zionist aggression and confront several of its combat formations, forcing them to retreat, using locally manufactured air defense systems…
Our military operations in support of Gaza will not cease, God willing, except with the cessation of the aggression and the lifting of the siege on it. Targeting a civilian fuel station on a main street will certainly have no impact on the military operations; rather, it reveals the brutality and bankruptcy of the Israeli enemy and will bring upon itself further escalation. The Yemeni people will not back down from their faithful and humanitarian stance in support of Gaza”.
Isam Yahya Al-Mutawakkil, the official spokesperson for the Yemeni Oil Company, in a video reposted by Houthi Deputy media spokesperson, Nasruddin Amer while Isam was seen in front of what he said to be the affected Oil company model station on 60th Street, saying, “the targeted station after extinguishing the fire in it: the fuel consumed by the enemy’s aircraft to reach Yemen and target the fuel station is more than the amount of fuel that was inside the tanks of the targeted station”.
It would be recalled that the Houthi attacks over the last two years since Israel bagan a retaliatory war in Gaza after Hamas attacked more than a thousand people in Southern Israel on October 7, 2023 have affected largely shipping in the Red Sea, through which about $1 trillion of goods passes each year.
Between November 2023 to December 2024, the Houthis targeted more than 100 ships with missiles and drones. The rebels stopped their attacks during a brief ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and later became the target of a weeks-long airstrike campaign ordered by President Donald Trump of the United States.
In May, the United States announced a deal with the Houthis to end the airstrikes in return for an end to shipping attacks, although the rebel group said the agreement did not include halting attacks on targets it believed were aligned with Israel.
Also this year May, Israeli airstrikes hit the Sanaa airport in a rare daytime attack that destroyed the terminal and left craters in its runway. At least six passenger planes were hit, including three belonging to Yemenia Airways, according to airport authorities.