Houthi missile halts flights in Israel hours before officials vote on Gaza plans

A missile launched by Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at Israel’s main international airport after the impact left a plume of smoke and caused panic among passengers.

The missile launch by Houthi rebels on Sunday set off air raid sirens in parts of Israel, and smoke was visible at the airport, according to footage shared by Israeli media. Passengers were heard yelling and scrambling for cover.

The attack on Ben-Gurion International Airport came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in Gaza.

The Israeli military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful before it struck near the airport. It left a deep crater in the ground and a nearby road was littered with dirt.

Fragments of missiles or interceptors have struck near the airport before, but this appeared to be the first time a missile had struck the airport since the war began.

Police said air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack. Traffic resumed after about an hour, Israel Airports Authority said. Paramedic service Magen David Adom said four people were lightly wounded.

Israeli media said multiple international airlines cancelled flights after the strike. The war with Hamas and then Hezbollah in Lebanon had led a wave of airlines to suspend flights to Israel but they have since returned to pre-war levels.

Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said in a video statement that the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.

The rebels have been firing at Israel since the war with Gaza erupted on October 7 2023, and the missiles have mostly been intercepted, although some have penetrated missile defence systems, causing damage.

Israel has struck back against the rebels in Yemen, and the US, Israel’s top ally, also launched strikes against them in March.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz vowed retribution for the airport attack, saying: “Whoever harms us, we will harm them sevenfold.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the US was supporting Israeli operations against the Houthis.

“It’s not bang, bang and we’re done, but there will be bangs,” he said in a video posted on social media.

Mr Netanyahu, in a later statement, said Israel would respond to the Houthi attack “and, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters”.

An Israeli official said the influential security cabinet will meet on Sunday evening to vote on plans to expand the fighting, and a military official said the country is calling up thousands of reserves.

National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, in an interview with Israeli Army Radio, said he wanted to see a “powerful” expansion of the war, but did not disclose details.

“We need to increase the intensity and continue until we achieve total victory. We must win a total victory,” he said. He demanded that Israel bomb food and electricity supplies in Gaza.

The plans to escalate fighting in Gaza come as a humanitarian crisis in the territory deepens.

As part of its efforts to pressure militant group Hamas to negotiate on Israel’s terms for a new ceasefire, Israel in early March halted the entry of goods into Gaza, plunging the territory of 2.3 million people into what is believed to be the worst humanitarian crisis since the war began.

An eight-week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that brought a lull in fighting and freed Israeli hostages collapsed in March.

Israel resumed its strikes on Gaza on March 18 and has captured swaths of the coastal enclave, and hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since the fighting resumed, according to local health officials.

At least seven Palestinians including two parents and their two children, aged two and four, were killed in Israeli air strikes in the southern and central Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that two soldiers had died in combat in Gaza, taking the total killed since fighting resumed in March to six.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. Israel says 59 remain in Gaza, although roughly 35 are said to be dead.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials, who do not distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count.

The fighting has displaced more than 90% of Gaza’s population, often multiple times. Hunger has been widespread and the shortage of food has set off looting.