Missile fired by Yemen’s Houthis lands near Israel’s main airport
BEN GURION AIRPORT, ISRAEL—A missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels towards Israel on Sunday landed near Ben Gurion Airport, the country’s main international airport, sending a plume of smoke into the air and causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, who claimed responsibility for the missile strike, have recently intensified missile launches at Israel, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
A senior Israeli police commander, Yair Hetzroni, showed reporters a crater caused by the impact of the missile, which airport authorities said had landed beside a road near a Terminal 3 parking lot.
“You can see the scene right behind us here, a hole that opened up with a diameter of tens of meters and also tens of meters deep,” Hetzroni said, adding that there was no significant damage.
In a statement after the strike, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said: “Whoever harms us will be harmed sevenfold.”
Sirens were activated across central Israel in the minutes before it fell, including nearby in the major city of Tel Aviv.
Safe rooms
A Reuters reporter at the airport, which is located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, heard sirens and saw passengers reacting by running towards safe rooms.
Several people at the airport posted videos filmed on smartphones that showed a plume of black smoke clearly visible nearby, behind parked aircraft and airport buildings. Reuters has not verified the videos.
The Israeli ambulance service said eight people were being taken to hospital, including a man in a mild to moderate condition with injuries to his limbs and two women in a mild condition with head injuries.
The Israel Airports Authority said takeoffs and landings had resumed and operations at Ben Gurion had returned to normal, after reports of air traffic being halted and access routes to the airport being blocked.
