US, Yemen's Houthis agree ceasefire brokered by Oman

The United States has agreed to end its conflict with Yemen's Houthis in an Oman-brokered ceasefire pact announced on Tuesday, despite the Iran-backed group vowing to continue its attacks on Israel.

In a statement posted on social media, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said both sides had agreed to stop targeting each other.

He added that the truce will ensure "freedom of navigation" in the Red Sea, where the Houthis have targeted shipping in response to Israel's assault on Gaza.

News of the agreement came an hour after President Donald Trump made the surprise announcement that the US would "immediately" end its attacks against the Yemeni group.

Speaking at the White House, Trump said that the Houthis had "capitulated" to the US, which has conducted hundreds of airstrikes across the country since the middle of March, killing at least 300 people, according to an AFP tally of Houthi figures.

"The Houthis have announced... that they don't want to fight anymore. They just don't want to fight," Trump said during a press appearance with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

"And we will honour that, and we will stop the bombings, and they have capitulated," he added.

Houthi officials said they will continue to attack Israel, despite their truce with Washington.

Mahdi al-Mashar, who chairs the group's supreme council, vowed a "painful" response to this week's deadly Israeli strikes, saying in a statement that the attacks "will continue" and go "beyond what the Israeli enemy can withstand".

Another senior official told Bloomberg that the group will continue to target Israel until stops its military assault on Gaza and lifts the blockade.

The Houthis on Sunday vowed to impose an air blockade on Israel by targeting its airports in response to Israel expanding its operations in Gaza.

'Completely destroyed'

The developments came just hours after Israeli warplanes launched new round of airstrikes on Yemen in retaliation for the Houthis' missile strike on Ben Gurion airport on Sunday.

The attack "completely destroyed" Yemen's Sanaa airport on Tuesday, an airport official said, and also targeted power stations and a cement factory.

"Three planes out of seven belonging to Yemenia Airlines were destroyed at Sanaa airport, and Sanaa International Airport was completely destroyed," the official said.

Israel's military said "fighter jets struck and dismantled Houthi terrorist infrastructure at the main airport in Sanaa, fully disabling the airport".

"Flight runways, aircraft and infrastructure at the airport were struck," a statement said.

The Israeli strikes, in retaliation for a Houthi missile that gouged a crater at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport on Sunday, also killed four people on Monday.

On Tuesday, plumes of thick, black smoke were seen billowing from the airport. Residents reported power cuts in Sanaa and Hodeida after the Israelis also struck three electricity stations in and around the capital.

"I was sleeping at home when 15 missiles were fired at us," said Abdallah, a 27-year-old student from Sanaa, who did not want to give his family name.

"I felt like the roof of the house had caved in. It was scary."

One person was killed at the airport and two others at a power station in Sanaa, the Houthis' Saba news agency said, citing the health ministry. Another 35 were wounded, Saba said.

'Fear and terror'

"Our children are terrified," said Umm Abdallah, a 35-year-old Sanaa resident, after Tuesday's attacks.

"They are afraid to go to the bathroom or eat because of the strikes. I mean, they cuddled up next to me because of the fear and terror they felt."

Just before Tuesday's attacks, Israel's military urged Yemeni civilians to "immediately" evacuate the airport and "stay away from the area" in an Arabic post on X.

The Houthis promised to hit back after the attack.

The "aggression will not pass without a response and Yemen will not be discouraged from its stance in support of Gaza", the Houthi political bureau said in a statement.

Regional tensions have soared again this week over Israel's plan to expand military operations in the Gaza Strip and displace much of the besieged territory's population.

Hans Grundberg, the United Nations' special envoy for Yemen, called the exchange of strikes between Yemen and Israel "a grave escalation in an already fragile and volatile regional context."

Israel says it has targeted Yemen five times since July 2024, with Houthi authorities reporting a total of 29 people killed. Israel's army regularly intercepts missiles from Yemen.

The Sanaa airport reopened to international flights in 2022 after a six-year blockade by the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis. It offers a regular service to Jordan on the home-grown Yemenia airline.

(AFP and TNA staff)