فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
A ballistic missile fired by the Houthis from Yemen struck the area of Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on Sunday, causing a brief disruption of air traffic and a sharp reaction from Israel, which vowed to strike the Yemeni rebels and their Iranian ally. The attack, unprecedented in its range and target, comes as the IDF prepares to intensify its offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday promised retaliation against the Houthis in Yemen and Iran, after a missile strike hit, for the first time, the area of Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, where air traffic was briefly suspended.
The attack occurred hours before the army officially confirmed the recall of tens of thousands of reservists in preparation for expanding its offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis, Tehran-backed rebels who control large swathes of Yemen, more than 1,800 kilometers from Israel’s southern border, claimed responsibility for the airport strike.
“We targeted Ben Gurion Airport with a hypersonic ballistic missile that successfully hit its target,” announced the Houthis, who regularly fire missiles at Israel in the name of defending Palestinians in Gaza. They announced later in the evening that they intended to “target Israeli airports” again, particularly Ben Gurion Airport.
“The Houthis’ attacks emanate from Iran. Israel will respond to (this) Houthi attack (…) AND in due course and at a place of our choosing, to their Iranian terrorist masters,” declared Benjamin Netanyahu, who was due to chair a security cabinet meeting in the evening.
“We have acted against (the Houthis) in the past and we will act in the future (…). It won’t happen in one boom but there will be many booms,” he affirmed.
“This is the first time” a missile has directly struck inside the airport perimeter, an Israeli military spokesperson told AFP.
The army confirmed that the impact, which caused a crater just a few hundred meters from the main terminal, was caused by the missile fired from Yemen and not by one of the interceptor missiles fired unsuccessfully by Israeli defense systems.
After investigation, the army clarified that there had been “no failure of detection and interception” but a “technical problem with the interceptor.”
According to an AFP photographer, the missile fell in a wooded area next to an access ramp to the Terminal 3 parking lots.
Israeli emergency services reported six minor injuries.
Allies of Hamas, the Houthis have claimed dozens of missile and drone attacks against Israel, including launches towards the airport, since the start of the war in Gaza. Almost all of these launches have been intercepted.
“What happened this morning had not happened for a long time. Several months ago, we had rockets (fired by Hamas) that fell near the airport, but today we had a close call,” an Israeli executive working for a foreign airline told AFP.
A loud explosion was heard inside Terminal 3, according to an AFP journalist.
Air traffic resumed after a brief interruption. Lufthansa and Air India nevertheless suspended their flights to Tel Aviv until May 6, and British Airways until May 7. Air France canceled its Sunday flights.
On Sunday evening, the Houthis called on “all international airlines” to take their threats of new strikes seriously “by canceling their flights to the airports of the Israeli enemy.”
After a two-month suspension, the Houthis resumed their missile attacks on Israel and their attacks on ships they consider linked to Israel off the coast of Yemen with the breakdown of the truce in the Gaza Strip on March 18, while the United States, since the return of Donald Trump to power, has intensified the air campaign targeting them.
The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, hailed this attack as “thwarting the most advanced defense systems in the world and hitting its targets with precision.”
According to Israeli media, the security cabinet meeting, whose decisions are generally not made public, is also expected to examine an expansion of the offensive in Gaza, where Israeli strikes killed 16 Palestinians on Sunday, according to rescue workers.
The objective is “to bring back our (hostages) and to defeat Hamas (whose) we (…) will destroy all the infrastructure, above ground and underground,” declared Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, Chief of Staff.
The attack led by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, resulted in the death of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official figures. Of the 251 people kidnapped, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 who have died according to the Israeli army.
The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation has killed at least 52,535 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.
