The Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) targeted Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv early on 20 March, marking its second attack on Israel since the resumption of all-out war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 700 people since the start of the week.
The YAF also carried out its fifth operation targeting the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, following several new US attacks on Yemen.
“The YAF missile force carried out a military operation targeting Ben Gurion Airport in the occupied Jaffa region with a Palestine-2 hypersonic ballistic missile. This operation successfully achieved its goal,” the YAF said in a statement.
Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and in several surrounding areas early on Thursday as a result of the attack, forcing millions of settlers to rush to shelters. Israel said it intercepted one missile from Yemen outside of its airspace. Tel Aviv’s ambulance service said it treated 13 people who were injured while running to shelters and another three suffering from anxiety.
The YAF also said it “escalated targeting of enemy warships in the Red Sea, including the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and its affiliated warships,” using drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles “for the fifth consecutive day.” Yemeni forces also downed their 16th US MQ-9 Reaper drone, worth millions of dollars, since last year.
The statement affirmed that “the American enemy will fail to prevent Yemen from targeting [Israel] in response to its massacres against our brothers in Gaza, and that intensifying air raids and launching more attacks will not deter Yemen.”
Several US airstrikes hit Hodeidah in western Yemen during the early morning hours of 20 March.
The night before, US warplanes targeted the outskirts of Saada and the capital Sanaa.
“Seven women and two children were injured in the preliminary toll of the US aggression on the Al-Jarf residential neighborhood, north of the Yemeni capital Sanaa,” Al Mayadeen’s correspondent reported.
The US has been heavily bombarding Yemen since 15 January in response to the YAF announcement reimposing the blockade on Israeli ships in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait, and Gulf of Aden.
On Saturday, US airstrikes on Sanaa killed at least 51 and injured around 100.
Sanaa’s renewed blockade was a response to Israel’s obstruction of the Gaza ceasefire deal and its prevention of desperately needed humanitarian aid from entering the strip.
Israel resumed its genocidal war on Gaza early on 18 March. The relentless bombardment of the strip since then has killed over 700 Palestinians, including women, children, and seniors.