Did Israeli jets use Saudi airspace to refuel before bombing Yemen?

The Israeli military appeared to show its fighter jets flying through Saudi airspace - a country that has no diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv - when bombing Yemen on Sunday, following the release of a video on social media this week.

The IDF Online channel released a video from onboard a refuelling plane used during Israeli strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, which caused a huge fireball to erupt and killed several workers.

An overflight segment of the video from the Boeing 707 used in the refuelling, appeared to show the Red Sea below and a jagged desert coastline.

Given the southwards trajectory of the Israeli F35s used in the strikes, the land captured on camera was likely Saudi with some internet sleuths pinpointing its likely location - Al-Humidah in the northwest of the kingdom.

"I am not... surprised a bit Israel used Saudi Arabia’s airspace to refuel while going to Bomb Yemen yesterday. Image: Al Humidah, Saudi Arabia geolocation: 29.206399,34.927129," one person tweeted.

Many others shared this view showing the striking similarity between the jut of land captured on camera and the serrated and sparsely populated stretch of the Saudi coastline around Al-Hudaidah that Google Maps shows.

While The New Arab could not confirm this claim, a CNN reporter onboard the flight appeared to validate the location of the land being Saudi territory.

"Saudi Arabia’s amber desert slides by to my right, Egypt’s coast to my left, then a monstrous F35 fighter jet fills the tiny screen," wrote Nic Robertson, CNN's international diplomatic editor.

The F35s which carried out the strikes on the Houthi-held port, would not have the range to reach Yemen without refuelling mid-flight.

The bombing of Yemen was seen as another escalation in the regional conflict by Israel and follows other bombing of the Iran-aligned Houthi areas of the impoverished Arab country.

Civilian infrastructure - such as port facilities and a power station in the latest strike - appear to be the targets of Israeli and US-led military inteventions.

A US-led military coalition has carried out numerous strikes on Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen this year, which follows a spate of attacks on merchant and naval shipping in the Red Sea, allegedly by the rebel force.

The Houthis have pledged solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, firing missiles toward Israel and targeted ships it claims are linked to the country.

The Houthis fought a bloody war with the Saudi-backed Yemeni government for nearly a decade, after the rebels captured the capital Sanaa in September 2014.

A Saudi-led coalition entered the war on the side of the Yemeni government, then based in Aden, in March 2015 with airstrikes killing thousands of civilians in Houthi-controlled areas over the years.

Tensions between the two sides have recently eased, with fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government decreasing following talks, but a long-term peace deal remains elusive.

Saudi Arabia does not recognise Israel and says normalisation hinges on movement toward the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, but there have been signs of cooperation between the two countries, particularly due to their shared animosity toward Iran.