Netanyahu vows response to Houthis’ ‘Iranian terror masters’ after airport attack

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday promised to respond to Iran at “a time and place of our choosing” over an attack by Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthi militia on Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.

“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran. Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters,” Netanyahu wrote on X, reposting a March message by US President Donald Trump also attributing attacks by the Yemeni group to their Iranian backers.

The strike came hours before Israel’s army confirmed the call-up of “tens of thousands” of reservists to expand the 19-month war in Gaza against Palestinian militants Hamas.

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The military confirmed that the attack, which gouged a large crater in the perimeter of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, was launched from Yemen and had struck despite “several attempts... to intercept the missile.”

A police video showed officers standing on the edge of a deep hole in the ground with the control tower visible behind them. No damage was reported to airport infrastructure.

The police reported a “missile impact” at Israel’s main international gateway.

An AFP photographer said the missile hit near the parking lots of Terminal 3, the airport’s largest. The crater was just hundreds of meters (yards) from the tarmac.

“This is the first time” that a missile has directly struck inside the airport perimeter, an Israeli military spokesperson told AFP.

Earlier, the Houthis, who say they act in support of Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza, claimed responsibility for the attack.

The militia said its forces “carried out a military operation targeting Ben Gurion airport” with a “hypersonic ballistic missile.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened a forceful response, saying: “Anyone who hits us, we will hit them seven times stronger.”

Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad later hailed the attack on the airport.

Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said it had treated at least six people with light to moderate injuries.

An incoming Air India flight was diverted to Abu Dhabi, an airport official told AFP.

It was one of the airlines to suspend Tel Aviv flights until Tuesday along with Italy’s ITA Airways and Germany’s Lufthansa Group, which includes Austrian, Eurowings and SWISS. Air France announced the cancellation of Sunday flights.

Flights resumed after being halted briefly, with the aviation authority saying Ben Gurion was now “open and operational.”

Israel’s security cabinet were to meet on Sunday, a government official said, before army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir confirmed media reports of a planned expansion of the Gaza war.

“This week we are issuing tens of thousands of orders to our reservists to intensify and expand our operation in Gaza,” Zamir said in a statement, adding the army would destroy all Hamas infrastructure, “both on the surface and underground.”

Israel’s public broadcaster had said the security cabinet would meet to discuss the expanded offensive.

The Houthis, who control swathes of Yemen, have launched missiles and drones targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war.

Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18 amid a deadlock over how to proceed with a two-month ceasefire that had largely stopped the war.

With AFP

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