GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for necessarily launching an investigation into the Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s Sana’a International Airport that happened on May 28, 2025, describing them as “apparently unlawful indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks on civilian objects.”
“The Israeli attacks destroyed all commercial passenger aircraft operating out of the Sana’a airport, cutting off civilians’ ability to travel and limiting the ability of humanitarian aid and personnel to enter,” HRW said in a report on Tuesday.
“The Sana’a airport is a critical lifeline for Yemeni civilians, many of whom rely on the airport as their only means to access needed medical care,” Niku Jafarnia, HRW’s Yemen and Bahrain researcher, said. “The Israeli military has now severed that lifeline, leaving many Yemenis without their primary point of access to the outside world.”
Israeli forces’ attacks destroyed four aircraft of Yemenia Airways — the only airline that provides commercial flights for Sana’a passengers — and damaged and destroyed significant portions of the airport. Four other aircraft, including a cargo plane, were also destroyed, according to satellite imagery analyzed by HRW.
HRW also analyzed videos and photographs taken by Yemen’s news channel Al-Masirah and posted to social media. The videos following the first attack show four aircraft on fire and damage to the facade and interior of airport buildings, including the main entrance. Photographs and satellite imagery after the second attack show one additional Yemenia Airways aircraft destroyed.
“The Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, published a warning on X prior to the first strike, prompting airport authorities to evacuate the airport in advance of the attack. Airlines and airport officials may have also received an earlier warning, as a United Nations flight scheduled to land in Sana’a airport at 1:30 p.m. was cancelled. Videos of the attack appeared on social media around 3:45 p.m. local time,” HRW explained in its report.
Satellite imagery collected on May 7 shows seven destroyed aircraft on the tarmac and severe damage to the main terminal. Eight additional impact points are visible on the runway and taxiways, leaving the airport unable to operate. On May 8, Adraee posted on X that the attacks had “completely disabled Sana’a Airport.”
Khaled al-Shaif, the director of Sana’a airport, told Al Jazeera at the time that the attack had “destroyed the airport terminals, the supply building, and six aircraft, and caused severe damage to the runway.”
Israeli forces also previously attacked Sana’a airport in December 2024. That attack killed at least four people and injured at least 18 others, according to the health ministry in Sana’a, including a crew member aboard a UN flight. The director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was boarding the same plane at the time.
“The airport is the only one in Sana’a and the only one providing international flights from Houthi-controlled territory, where the majority of Yemen’s population lives. The airport is also a critical entry point for humanitarian personnel, as well as some aid, and it is also used for UN flights,” HRW pointed out.
UN agencies and nongovernmental organizations have highlighted the importance of the Sana’a airport to civilians. After Israeli forces’ attack in December, UN Resident Coordinator for Yemen Julien Harneis, who was in the airport on the day of the attack, stated that the airport “is a civilian location that is used by the United Nations.” He also said that the airport was “absolutely vital” to continued humanitarian aid for Yemen. Harneis told HRW: “Health services in Yemen are rudimentary. You have an older population in Yemen with diabetes, cancer, noncommunicable diseases for which they’re unable to get treatment in Yemen. The airport has always been vital to getting those people out.”
Afrah Nasser, a Yemeni journalist and former Human Rights Watch researcher, highlighted in 2024 that “nearly 60 percent of cancer patients in Yemen die due to a lack of resources, medical tools and services, and the scarcity of medicines at cancer treatment centers.”
Human Rights Watch was unable to find evidence that the terminals and planes struck were used by the Houthis for military purposes. The Israeli military did not provide details to support its claims against the airport and Yemenia planes.
“Israeli forces have repeatedly carried out unlawful attacks on critical civilian infrastructure in Yemen, Gaza, and Lebanon with impunity,” Jafarnia said. “Countries still arming Israel risk being complicit in these brazen attacks and share responsibility for the grave harm to Yemeni and other civilians that has resulted.”
