By Mustafa Abu Ganeyeh
BEN GURION AIRPORT, Israel (Reuters) -A missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels towards Israel on Sunday landed near the country’s main international airport, causing panic among passengers and drawing threats of retaliation against the group and Iran.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis claimed responsibility for the missile strike that struck near Ben Gurion Airport, the latest in a string of attacks, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran. Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters,” Netanyahu said on X.
In a separate video issued by his office, Netanyahu said: “We will do what we need to do to take care of our security, to respond effectively, and to give Iran due warning that this cannot continue.”
Most attacks from Yemen have been intercepted by Israel’s missile defence systems, though a drone strike hit Tel Aviv last year. Sunday’s missile was the only one of a series launched since March that was not intercepted.
The Israeli military said it was investigating.
U.S. STRIKES ON HOUTHIS
A Reuters reporter at the airport heard sirens and saw passengers running towards safe rooms.
Several people posted videos showing a plume of black smoke visible behind parked aircraft and airport buildings. Pictures showed a nearby road scattered with dust and debris.
The Israeli ambulance service said eight people were taken to hospital for mild to moderate injuries.
An Israeli police commander, Yair Hetzroni, showed reporters a crater caused by the impact of the missile, which airport authorities said landed beside a road near a Terminal 3 parking lot. The airport lies near the major city of Tel Aviv.
“You can see the scene right behind us here, a hole that opened up with a diameter of tens of metres and also tens of metres deep,” Hetzroni said, adding that there was no significant damage.
Claiming responsibility, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said Israel’s main airport was “no longer safe for air travel”.
The Israel Airports Authority said normal operations had resumed, after reports of air traffic being halted and access routes to the airport being blocked.
However, a string of airlines including Lufthansa, Delta, ITA Airways and Air France said they had cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv, some of which had been scheduled for Monday or Tuesday.
Sunday’s strike came as Israeli ministers were reported to be close to signing off on plans to expand the military operation in Gaza, which resumed in March following a two-month truce, prompting the Houthis to hit Israel with more missiles.
Efforts to revive the ceasefire have faltered, and U.S. President Donald Trump in March ordered large-scale strikes against the Houthis to reduce their capabilities and deter them from targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The strikes have killed hundreds of people in Yemen.
The Houthis, who control swathes of Yemen, began targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping in late 2023, during the early days of the war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.
The war was triggered by Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. Israel’s offensive on Gaza has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians and destroyed much of the enclave.
(Additional reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din, Jaidaa Taha, Alexander Cornwell, Steven Scheer and Maayan Lubell;Writing by Estelle Shirbon;Editing by Toby Chopra, Helen Popper and Conor Humphries)
