Israeli police let an ambulance pass as they block the entrance to Ben Gurion Airport after the country activated its air defenses against a missile launched from Yemen, on May 4, 2025. (Credit: Jack Guez/AFP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised on Sunday retaliation against the Houthi rebels from Yemen and Iran, after a missile hit, for the first time, the area of Ben Gurion Airport, near Tel Aviv, where air traffic was briefly suspended.
The attack occurred a few hours before the military officially confirmed the recall of tens of thousands of reservists in order to expand its offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The strike at Ben Gurion Airport was claimed by the Houthis, Iran-backed rebels who control large parts of Yemen, over 1,800 kilometers from Israel's southern border. "We targeted Ben Gurion Airport with a hypersonic ballistic missile that successfully reached its target," announced the Houthis, who regularly fire missiles at Israel in defense of the Palestinians in Gaza.
"The Houthi attacks emanate from Iran. Israel will respond to [this] attack by the Houthis ... and in due time and at a place of our choosing, to their Iranian terrorist masters," said Benjamin Netanyahu, who was to chair a security cabinet meeting in the evening.
"We have acted against [the Houthis] in the past and we will act in the future ... it will not happen in a single bang but there will be many bangs," he affirmed.
"It is the first time" a missile strikes directly within the perimeter of the airport, an Israeli military spokesperson told AFP.
'Narrow escape '
The military confirmed that the impact causing a crater just a few 100 meters from the main terminal was caused by the missile fired from Yemen and not by one of the interceptor missiles unsuccessfully fired by Israeli defense systems.
According to an AFP photographer, the missile landed in a wooded area next to an access ramp to Terminal 3 parking lots.
Israeli emergency services reported six minor injuries.
Allies of Hamas, the Houthis have claimed dozens of missile and drone attacks against Israel, including shots in the direction of the airport, since the beginning of the Gaza war. Almost all the shots have been intercepted.
"What happened this morning had not occurred for a long time. Several months ago, we had rockets [fired by Hamas] fall near the airport, but today we had a narrow escape," an Israeli official working for a foreign airline told AFP.
A loud detonation was heard inside Terminal 3, according to an AFP journalist.
Air traffic resumed after a brief interruption and the situation returned to normal in the early afternoon.
Lufthansa and Air India, however, suspended their flights to Tel Aviv until May 6, and British Airways until May 7. Air France canceled its flights for the day on Sunday.
After a two-month suspension, the Houthis resumed their missile firing on Israel and their attacks on ships they deem linked to Israel off the coast of Yemen with the breakdown of the truce in the Gaza Strip on March 18, while the United States has intensified the aerial campaign targeting them since Donald Trump returned to power.
'Defeating Hamas'
According to Israeli media, the security cabinet meeting is also to consider an expansion of the offensive in Gaza, where Israeli strikes killed 16 Palestinians on Sunday, according to emergency services.
The objective is "to bring back our [hostages] and defeat Hamas; we ... will destroy all [its] infrastructures, above and below ground," said Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, Chief of Staff.
Netanyahu assures that increased military pressure is the only way to force Hamas to release the hostages held in Gaza.
The Oct. 7, 2023, attack resulted in the death of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 58 are still held in Gaza, of whom 34 have died according to the Israeli military.
The Israeli offensive carried out in retaliation has resulted in at least 52,535 deaths in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to figures from Gaza's Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the U.N.
