Reports: Israel used Saudi airspace for Yemen strike

Israel informed Saudi Arabia in advance of its attack on the Yemeni port city of Hudaydah on Saturday, with Riyadh allowing the occupation’s warplanes to pass through its airspace to bomb Houthi targets, Israeli Army Radio said yesterday.

The radio station’s military correspondent, Doron Kadosh said the Israeli fighter planes passed through “the Saudi airspace for a large part of their journey to Yemen”.

Earlier on Saturday, the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the Israeli army had coordinated with Saudi Arabia to carry out its attack on Yemen and that the coordination included aerial refuelling with RAM aircraft, in addition to flying at low altitudes to avoid radars.

However, the spokesperson of the Saudi Ministry of Defence, Brigadier General Turki Al-Maliki, denied his country’s involvement in the attack saying: “Saudi Arabia has no relationship or participation in targeting Hudaydah, and the kingdom will not allow its airspace to be infiltrated by any party.”

The US administration and Central Command were informed of the operation hours before the attack, according to reports, however the US has said it did not participate in the attack.

At least six people were killed and 83 others injured in Israeli air strikes on Hudaydah Port in western Yemen on Saturday, according to the Houthi-run Health Ministry.

Israel claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying it was a “direct response” to a drone strike launched by the Houthi group on Tel Aviv on Friday, which killed an Israeli and injured ten others.

Saturday’s attack marked the first direct Israeli response to recent Houthi attacks.

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