A Yemeni plane on fire after Israeli airstrikes target Sanaa Airport. (X Screenshot)
Despite crippling strikes, Houthis vow to keep targeting Israel until Gaza receives aid.
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News
Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a stark warning to the Houthis and their patron, Iran, on Thursday morning, threatening that additional attacks on Israel will be met with strong retaliation.
“The Houthis will absorb heavy blows from Israel if they continue firing toward us. The IDF is prepared for any mission,” Katz said in a media statement.
“I also warn the Iranian leadership, which funds, arms and operates the Houthi terror organization: The proxy method is over, and the axis of evil has collapsed,” he continued.
“You bear direct responsibility. What we did to Hezbollah in Beirut, Hamas in Gaza, Assad in Damascus and the Houthis in Yemen will also be done to you in Tehran.”
Katz added that “we will not allow any element to harm Israel.”
The statement comes after IDF bombing completely destroyed Sana’a Airport in Yemen, an attack launched after a Houthi missile struck Ben-Gurion Airport in central Israel on Sunday.
Khaled al-Shaief, Sana’a Airport’s director, told Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah TV station on Wednesday that damage to the transportation hub was estimated at $500 million.
Six planes, including three belonging to national carrier Yemenia Airways, were obliterated in the Israeli strikes, he said.
“The enemy destroyed the terminals at Sana’a airport, including all equipment and devices,” al-Shaief said.
“There are alternatives to temporarily reopen the airport, and we need a long time to rehabilitate it and restore operations,” he added.
Houthi officials said that they were undeterred by the Israeli attack on the airport and would continue attacking the Jewish state until humanitarian aid enters the Strip.
Stressing that a recent truce between the U.S. and the Houthis does not include Israel, a Houthi spokesman told Al Jazeera that “our response to the Israeli entity is inevitably coming.”
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