A ballistic missile launched from Yemen hit near the main terminal of the Israel International Airport near Tel Aviv on Sunday, after the military could not intercept the projectile apparently aimed at one of the most sensitive places in the country.
The strike, carried out by the Hutí militia backed by Iranian, resulted in a temporary flight suspension. There were no immediate reports of deaths.
Israel’s army said several efforts were made to intercept the missile and that an impact was identified in the Ben Gurion airport area. The army added that the episode was under review.
The Magen Adom Emergency Ambulance Service said he was treating four people who were smoothly or moderately injured by the explosion and two others that were injured while they took refuge.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an urgent consultation of his security cabinet on Sunday. In a video published shortly after on social networks, Mr. Netanyahu was not to broadcast a specific threat of retaliation.
“We have acted in the past, we will act in the future,” he said about the hutis. He also pointed out that the United States was pointing to the hutis in Yemen, in coordination with Israel.
Israel Katz, the country’s minister of defense, had suggested shortly after the attack that would be a hard response.
“Whoever damages us will be harmed by us seven times,” Katz said in a statement.
The airport resumed operations about an hour after the strike, but some international airlines canceled the arrivals and scheduled outings.
The Militia Hutí supplied shooting missiles in Israel more than a year ago in solidarity with Hamas, the group backed by Iran in the Gaza Strip. He has intensified his attacks since Israel finished a high fire in Gaza in mid -March.
The Sunday missile, which hit at the beginning of the work week in Israel, was the fourth by the hutis aimed at Israel in the last 48 hours. The other three were intercepted.
The Arrow de Israel Air Defense System, which is capable of achieving objectives in the atmosphere or beyond the atmosphere, has succeeded in frustrating many long -range missile attacks. In October, the United States sent Israel an advanced advanced antimisile defense system to help defend the attacks of Iran and its allies.
But when sliding all the defenses, the strike near the airport was one of the greatest successes for the hutis in recent months, and one of the most serious failures for Israel.
Houthi’s military spokesman, Yahya Sari, was responsible for attacking the airport and, in a video statement, warned International Airlines to stay away from Ben Gurion for his own security.
Hamas praised the missile attack, which occurred hours after the Israel Army announced that it would mobilize thousands of additional reserve soldiers to reinforce their campaign in Gaza.
More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, according to health officials in the enclave, who do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. The war began after Hamas led an attack against Israel in October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking another 250 back to Gaza as hostages.
Israel says that their military operations in Gaza aim to destroy Hamas and press the group to release dishes of captives that still remain there. Mr. Netanyahu refused Sunday to detail military plans for Gaza, but again to achieve “total victory” over Hamas.
In recent months, Israel had refrained from retreating hutis in Yemen while the United States intensified attacks aimed at the group. Since the fall of 2023, the hutis have repeatedly attacked commercial and naval ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Adén, they say, of the Palestinians under the bombing in Gaza.
After Sunday’s strike near the airport, Israel’s opposition leaders shot the government so that the task for not stopping the missiles that activated the sirens throughout the country and sent millions of civilians running to bomb shelters, from the middle of the night.
Benny Gantz, a former Israeli military chief and now the leader of a centrist opposition party, urged Netanyahu’s government to “wake up” and take reprisals against Iran, as well as the Trump administration is negotiating with Tehran to stop his nuclear program.
“This is not Yemen, this is Iran,” Gantz said in a statement published on social networks. “Iran is the only one who triggers ballistic missiles in the state of Israel, and must assume responsibility.”
The videos and images published on social networks on Sunday showed a large dark plume or smoke that rose from an open area near terminal 3 at the airport, the main international terminal, while the mermaids lamented and the people ran to cover themselves.
You could see large missile fragments on the ground outside the entrance to the building, and a road near the airport seemed to be covered with land and shrapnel. The images on social networks showed that the police gathered in a close muddy field inspecting a great deep crater.
In a statement shortly before the attack, the Israel airport authority said 422 flights had been scheduled to arrive or depart on Sunday.
Myra Noveck” Adam Rasgon and Gabby Sobelman Contributed reports.
