Missile fired by Yemen's Houthis lands near Israel's main airport

Thomson Reuters

· Posted: May 04, 2025 8:34 AM EDT | Last Updated: 26 minutes ago

A rocket fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels toward Israel connected Sunday landed adjacent Ben Gurion Airport, the country's main planetary airport, sending a plume of fume into the aerial and causing panic among passengers successful the terminal building.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, who claimed work for the rocket strike, person precocious intensified rocket launches astatine Israel, saying they are acting successful solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

A elder Israeli constabulary commander, Yair Hetzroni, showed reporters a crater caused by the interaction of the missile, which airdrome authorities said had landed beside a roadworthy adjacent a Terminal 3 parking lot.

"You tin spot the country close down america here, a spread that opened up with a diameter of tens of metres and besides tens of metres deep," Hetzroni said, adding that determination was nary important damage.

In a connection aft the strike, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said: "Whoever harms america volition beryllium harmed sevenfold."

Israel's Channel 12 News said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would conscionable information ministers and defence officials connected Sunday to sermon a response.

Most rocket launches from Yemen person been intercepted by Israel's rocket defence systems, isolated from a onslaught that deed the large metropolis of Tel Aviv last year.

The subject said it was investigating what happened with Sunday's launch, which caused sirens to beryllium activated crossed cardinal Israel, including adjacent successful Tel Aviv.

A Reuters newsman astatine the airport, which is located betwixt Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, heard sirens and saw passengers reacting by moving toward safe rooms.

Several radical astatine the airdrome posted videos filmed connected cellphones that showed a plume of achromatic fume intelligibly disposable nearby, down parked craft and airdrome buildings. Reuters has not verified the videos.

The Israeli ambulance work said 8 radical were being taken to hospital, including a antheral successful a mild to mean information with injuries to his limbs and 2 women successful a mild information with caput injuries.

U.S. strikes connected Houthis

Claiming work for the strike, the Houthis' subject spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said Israel's main airdrome was "no longer harmless for aerial travel."

A spokesperson for the Israel Airports Authority said takeoffs and landings had resumed and that operations astatine Ben Gurion had returned to normal, aft reports of aerial postulation being halted and entree routes to the airdrome being blocked.

However, formation operations were disrupted owed to the missile, according to Ben Gurion's unrecorded aerial postulation site.

Some flights, including by Air India, TUS Airways and Lufthansa Group, were cancelled. Others, including to U.S. airports Newark successful New Jersey and JFK in New York, were delayed by astir 90 minutes. A Reuters newsman boarded a formation to Dubai that was connected time.

Sunday's onslaught came arsenic Israeli ministers were reported to beryllium adjacent to signing disconnected connected plans to grow the subject cognition successful Gaza, which resumed successful March pursuing a two-month truce, drafting a pledge from the Houthis to deed Israel with much missiles.

Efforts to revive the ceasefire person truthful acold faltered, and U.S. President Donald Trump in March ordered large-scale strikes against the Houthis to trim their capabilities and deter them from targeting commercialized shipping successful the Red Sea.

The Houthis, who power swaths of Yemen, began targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping successful precocious 2023, during the aboriginal days of the warfare betwixt Hamas and Israel successful the Gaza Strip.

The warfare was triggered by Hamas-led attacks connected confederate Israel connected Oct. 7, 2023, successful which immoderate 1,200 radical were killed and 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's violative connected Gaza has killed much than 50,000 Palestinians and destroyed overmuch of the enclave, Palestinian wellness authorities say.

The U.S. strikes connected the rebel group, which person killed hundreds of radical successful Yemen, person been the biggest U.S. subject cognition successful the Middle East since Trump took bureau successful January.