Israel vows retaliation against Iran, Yemen's Houthis over airport attack
World
The strike came hours before Israel's army confirmed the call-up of tens of thousands of reservists
TEL AVIV (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed a response to Yemen's Houthis and their Iranian backers after the rebels struck the area of Israel's main airport, injuring six people and prompting flight suspensions.
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.
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".
In a video published on Telegram, Netanyahu said Israel had "acted against" the Iran-backed rebels in the past and "will act in the future".
"It will not happen in one bang, but there will be many bangs," he added, without going into further detail.
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 metres from the tarmac.
NETANYAHU SUMMONS CABINET
Later on X, Netanyahu said Israel would also respond to Iran at "a time and place of our choosing".
It was unclear if the ministers will give final approval at the meeting, but the military has already begun issuing tens of thousands of call-up orders for its reserve forces, looking to expand the Gaza campaign, its chief said on Sunday.
"We are increasing the pressure with the goal of returning our people (hostages) and defeating Hamas," Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir told troops, according to a statement from the army.
Already in control of around a third of Gaza's territory, Israel has faced growing international pressure to lift an aid blockade that it imposed in March after the collapse of a US-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for two months.
"HIT THEM"
"You can see the area just behind us: a crater was formed here, several dozen metres wide and several dozen metres deep," central Israel's police chief, Yair Hezroni, said in the video.
"This is the first time" that a missile has directly struck inside the airport perimeter, an Israeli military spokesperson told AFP.
An initial inquiry by the Israeli Air Force later determined a "technical issue" with the interceptor targeting the missile, rather than a malfunction in its detection system, was the likely reason it was not stopped.
The Houthis, who say they act in support of Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The rebels said their forces "carried out a military operation targeting Ben Gurion airport" with a "hypersonic ballistic missile".
Defence 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 AFP journalist inside the airport at the time of the attack said he heard a "loud bang" at around 9.35am (2.35pm, Singapore time), adding that the "reverberation was very strong".
"Security staff immediately asked hundreds of passengers to take shelter, some in bunkers," the AFP journalist said.
"Many passengers are now waiting for their flights to take off, and others are trying to find alternative flights."
An incoming Air India flight was diverted to Abu Dhabi, an airport official told AFP.
"PANIC"
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.
A passenger said the attack, which came shortly after air raid sirens sounded across parts of Israel, caused "panic".
"It is crazy to say but since Oct 7 we are used to this," the 50-year-old, who did not want to be named, said referring to the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
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 Mar 18 amid a deadlock over how to proceed with a two-month ceasefire that had largely stopped the war.
