Yemen‘s Houthis said they launched a ballistic missile attack targeting Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, a day after Israel launched multiple attacks across Yemen including on Sanaa airport.
The Houthi administration in Yemen said on Friday that a missile had “succeeded in reaching its target despite the enemy’s censorship, and the operation resulted in casualties and the cessation of navigation at the airport.”
Israel’s military said it had successfully intercepted the missile, with no reports of impacts or casualties. Flight arrivals to the airport were suspended for around 30 minutes.
The Houthis said they also carried out a drone attack in the Tel Aviv area, and targeted a container vessel in the Arabian Sea. There were no reports of drone impacts in Tel Aviv on Friday.
The group said that Israeli “aggression will only increase the determination and resolve of the great Yemeni people to continue supporting the Palestinian people.”
The Houthis have launched drone and missile attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea for over a year in solidarity with Palestinians under bombardment in Gaza. In recent months, they have stepped up direct attacks on Israel.
On Thursday, Israeli forces struck Sanaa airport in the Yemeni capital multiple times, with raids also targeting the nearby al-Dailami airbase.
Israel’s military said it also attacked Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Kanatib.
Three people were killed at Sanaa airport and three in Hodeidah, in addition to 40 people wounded in total by Israel’s attacks, according to Yemen’s Saba news agency.
WHO staff wounded
Amongst those wounded by Israel’s strike on the airport was a crew member working with the UN Humanitarian Air Service.
The staffer suffered serious injuries and had to be operated on, according to the World Health Organization, which added that he was now recovering in hospital.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, was in the airport at the time of the attack.
“As we were about to board our flight from Sanaa, about two hours ago, the airport came under aerial bombardment. One of our plane’s crew members was injured,” Ghebreyesus said on X.
“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge – just a few metres from where we were – and the runway were damaged,” he said.
He was in Yemen as part of a mission to seek the release of detained UN staff and assess the health and humanitarian situations in the war-torn country.
He said the mission concluded today, and “we continue to call for the detainees’ immediate release”.
Israel has vowed in recent days to ramp up its attacks on the Houthis. On Monday, Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel would strike “strategic infrastructure and decapitate” the Houthi leadership.
“Just as we did to Haniyeh, Sinwar and Nasrallah, in Tehran, Gaza and Lebanon – we will do in Hodeidah and Sanaa,” Katz said, referring to the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah killed by Israel in recent months.
Dozens of people were injured in a rocket attack on Tel Aviv on Saturday claimed by the Houthis. The attack came after deadly Israeli strikes on ports and energy infrastructure in Houthi-held parts of Yemen last week.
