Click to expand Image A Yemeni officer inspects the damage following Israeli airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport in Sanaa, Yemen, May 7, 2025. © 2025 Osamah Abdulrahman/AP Photo (Beirut) – The Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s Sanaa International Airport on May 6 and May 28, 2025, were apparently unlawful indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks on civilian objects and should be investigated as war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. The Houthis’ attacks that deliberately targeted Ben Gurion Airport and other civilian infrastructure in Israel should also be investigated as war crimes. The Israeli attacks destroyed all commercial passenger aircraft operating out of the Sanaa airport, cutting off civilians’ ability to travel and limiting the ability of humanitarian aid and personnel to enter. The Houthis attackedBen Gurion Airport prior to both of the Israeli forces’ airport attacks and in one case reportedly injured four people. “The Sanaa airport is a critical lifeline for Yemeni civilians, many of whom rely on the airport as their only means to access needed medical care,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “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 Sanaa passengers—and damaged and destroyed significant portions of the airport. Four other aircraft, including a cargo plane, were also destroyed, according to Human Rights Watch analysis of satellite imagery.Human Rights Watch analyzed videos and photographs taken by the Houthi-run 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 Sanaa airport at 1:30 p.m. was cancelled. Videos of the attack appeared on social media around 3:45 p.m. local time.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 Sanaa Airport.”Khaled al-Shaif, the director of Sanaa airport, told Al Jazeera that the attack had “destroyed the airport terminals, the supply building, and six aircraft, and caused severe damage to the runway.” Three sources at the airport told Reuters that the military airbase next to the airport was also attacked. Human Rights Watch did not identify any direct strike on the airbase buildings based on satellite imagery analysis. The airbase buildings had been largely destroyed prior to this attack. On May 15, the first UN flight since the May 6 attack landed at Sanaa airport. Between then and the attack on May 28, commercial flights also resumed. Flights have not resumed since the second attack.Israeli forces carried out the second attack on the morning of May 28. Civilians, including pilgrims awaiting a flight to Saudi Arabia and staff from the humanitarian group Médicins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders or MSF), were at the airport at the time of the attack, though none were harmed. Adraee did not publish a warning on X. Human Rights Watch analyzed a screen recording of a video that appears to have been filmed by airport security cameras. The video shows people rapidly disembarking from the Yemenia Airbus A320-233 aircraft, apparently at least 45 minutes before it was struck. A plume of smoke can be seen rising to the east of the aircraft as fire engines sound their sirens. This could indicate that the Israeli military may have provided some form of warning before the attack. According to a flight-tracking website, the plane landed at 9:28 a.m., and the shadows cast by the passengers disembarking the plane indicate it was around 9:30 a.m. The attack that destroyed the aircraft likely took place between 10:15 and 11:00 a.m., according to news reports and social media posts.Israeli forces also previously attacked Sanaa airport in December 2024. That attack killed at least four people and injured at least 18 others, according to the Houthis’ Health Ministry, 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 Sanaa 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. The Houthis seized the Yemenia planes in June 2024. Soon after, the Houthis and the internationally-recognized Yemeni government agreed to allow flights between Sanaa and Cairo, India, and Amman. UN agencies and nongovernmental organizations have highlighted the importance of the Sanaa 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 Human Rights Watch: “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.”The Israeli military, in response to a May 19 request for information, said it was “striking legitimate military targets belonging to the Houthi regime in Yemen,” and that it had carried out the strikes “with maximum precision, and steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure.” It has also stated that the airport was “a central hub for the Houthi terrorist regime to transfer weapons and operatives.”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 claim. The Israeli military stated that both attacks were in response to the Houthis’ attacks on Ben Gurion Airport, Israel’s main passenger airport. The Houthis have directed attacks at the airport many times since 2023, including several during the week prior to the May 28 strikes. Israeli forces and defense systems intercepted most attacks, though a May 4 attack was not intercepted and reportedly injured four people. The laws of war prohibit deliberate, indiscriminate, or disproportionate attacks on civilians and civilian objects. An attack not directed at a specific military objective is indiscriminate. An attack is disproportionate if the expected civilian loss is excessive compared to the anticipated military gain of the attack. Attacks that can be expected to cause more harm to civilians and civilian structures than the anticipated military gain of the attack are prohibited. Deliberate attacks on objects indispensable to survival are war crimes.“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.”