SANAA: Israel’s attack on the airport in Yemen’s Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa destroyed terminal buildings and caused $500 million in damage, its director told Houthi media on Wednesday.
He said earlier in a statement on X that the airport was suspending all flights until further notice after sustaining “severe damage” in the Israeli strikes.
The strikes came after a Houthi missile gouged a crater near Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport on Sunday.
“Around $500 million in losses were caused by the Israeli aggression on Sanaa airport,” its general director Khaled alShaief told the Houthis’ Al-Masirah television.
“The enemy destroyed the terminals at Sanaa airport, including all equipment and devices,” he said, adding that a warehouse was also “completely leveled.”
Yemenia Airways lost three planes, he said, adding that six planes in total had been destroyed.
“There are alternatives to temporarily reopen the airport, and we need a long time to rehabilitate it and restore operations,” he said.
On Tuesday, the Houthis and the United States agreed a ceasefire that would ensure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, mediator Oman said.
But the deal that was announced does not mention Israel, with the rebels vowing to respond to Tuesday’s strikes.
Houthis have been attacking Israel and merchant shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since late 2023, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians as the Gaza war rages.
The Houthis had paused their attacks during a recent two-month ceasefire in the Gaza war.
In March, they threatened to resume attacks on shipping over Israel’s aid blockade on the Gaza Strip, triggering a response from the US military, which began hammering the Houthis with near-daily air strikes.
Israel attack on Sanaa airport caused $500m in damage: director
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Israel attack on Sanaa airport caused $500m in damage: director
- Sanaa airport suspends flights after ‘severe damage’ from Israel strikes: director
- Yemenia Airways lost three planes
The UN says Al-Hol camp population has dropped sharply as Syria moves to relocate remaining families
The UN says Al-Hol camp population has dropped sharply as Syria moves to relocate remaining families
- Forces of Syria’s central government captured the Al-Hol camp on Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade
DAMASCUS: The UN refugee agency said Sunday that a large number of residents of a camp housing family members of suspected Daesh group militants have left and the Syrian government plans to relocate those who remain.
Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR’s representative in Syria, said in a statement that the agency “has observed a significant decrease in the number of residents in Al-Hol camp in recent weeks.”
“Syrian authorities have informed UNHCR of their plan to relocate the remaining families to Akhtarin camp in Aleppo Governorate (province) and have requested UNHCR’s support to assist the population in the new camp, which we stand ready to provide,” he said.
He added that UNHCR “will continue to support the return and reintegration of Syrians who have departed Al-Hol, as well as those who remain.”
The statement did not say how residents had left the camp or how many remain. Many families are believed to have escaped either during the chaos when government forces captured the camp from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces last month or afterward.
There was no immediate statement from the Syrian government and a government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
At its peak after the defeat of IS in Syria in 2019, around 73,000 people were living at Al-Hol. Since then, the number has declined with some countries repatriating their citizens. The camp’s residents are mostly children and women, including many wives or widows of IS members.
The camp’s residents are not technically prisoners and most have not been accused of crimes, but they have been held in de facto detention at the heavily guarded facility.
Forces of Syria’s central government captured the Al-Hol camp on Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade. A ceasefire deal has since ended the fighting.
Separately, thousands of accused IS militants who were held in detention centers in northeastern Syria have been transferred to Iraq to stand trial under an agreement with the US
The US military said Friday that it had completed the transfer of more than 5,700 adult male IS suspects from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody.
Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation said a total of 5,704 suspects from 61 countries who were affiliated with IS — most of them Syrian and Iraqi — were transferred from prisons in Syria. They are now being interrogated in Iraq.
