Yemeni missile attack targets Israel’s key international airport
A missile attack by Yemen’s Ansarullah movement targeted Israel’s main international airport on Sunday, wounding several people and causing panic among passengers.
The Yemen’s Armed Forces have been striking Israel throughout the war in Gaza in solidarity with Palestinians. The attack on Ben Gurion International Airport came hours before Israeli Cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify military operations in the Gaza Strip. The army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation, officials said.
This was the first time a missile struck the airport since the war began, though fragments of missiles or interceptors have struck nearby. Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept it were unsuccessful. It left a crater in the ground near the airport’s access road.
An AFP photographer said the missile hit near the parking lots of Terminal 3, the airport's largest. The crater was just hundreds of meters (yards) from the tarmac.
The Israel Airports Authority said: "This is the first time a missile has fallen so close to the terminal and the runways."
Passengers were heard yelling and scrambling for cover in footage shared by Israeli media. Air raid sirens sounded in multiple parts of Israel.
Police said air, road and rail traffic were halted. Traffic resumed after about an hour, Israel Airports Authority said. Israel’s paramedic service Magen David Adom said four people were lightly wounded.
Israeli media said multiple international airlines canceled flights. The Israel’s war on Gaza and then Lebanon had led a wave of airlines to suspend flights to Israel, but they have since returned to prewar levels.
The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a video statement that the Yemeni forces fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Palestinian resistance groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah hailed the attack.
Yemeni forces have been firing at Israel since the war with Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023. The missiles have mostly been intercepted, although some have penetrated Israel’s missile defense systems, causing damage.
Israel has struck back against Yemen, and the US, Israel’s top ally, launched a campaign of strikes in March against them.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed retribution: “Whoever harms us, we will harm them sevenfold.”