A missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted central Israel on Sunday, setting off warning sirens and forcing passengers and staff to seek shelter at the country’s main international airport. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to exact a “heavy price.”
The episode, less than two months after a drone launched by the group attacked Tel Aviv, represented a new escalation in Israel's confrontation with Iran-backed rebels.
It also offered a stark reminder that Israel is currently engaged in a battle on three fronts: with the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, with Lebanon-based Hezbollah on its northern border, and with the Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Sunday's attack caused no serious damage or direct injuries, according to Israeli officials, but raised questions about how the projectile was able to travel so far into Israeli airspace. The Israeli military said the missile apparently fragmented in mid-air and that it was examining the wreckage.
Media footage showed a fire in a rural field about seven miles (11 km) from Ben Gurion Airport and loud explosions were heard in the surrounding area. Minor damage was reported at a train station in the central city of Modiin. Authorities said normal operations resumed at the airport shortly after the attack, which occurred shortly after 6:30 a.m. local time.
A Houthi statement claiming responsibility for the attack suggested a heightened level of sophistication in the group’s arsenal and tactics. In a televised address Sunday morning, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed to have sown “fear and panic” with the group’s use of what he described as a hypersonic ballistic missile. The Israeli military denied it was a hypersonic weapon and said none of Israel’s adversaries possessed such technology.
Since the start of the Gaza war, the Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel, but nearly all of them were intercepted over the Red Sea. On July 19, an Iranian-made drone launched by the group struck near the Tel Aviv seafront, killing one man and wounding several others.
Israel responded with multiple airstrikes on Houthi-held territory in Yemen, an impoverished country at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula where rebels have been waging a war against government forces for two decades.
Netanyahu indicated that this attack would also trigger an Israeli response.
“The Houthis should already know that we exact a heavy price for any attempt to harm us,” he told his cabinet hours after the attack. “Anyone who needs a reminder is invited to visit the port of Hodeidah,” the Yemeni coastal city, a Houthi stronghold, which came under attack after the July drone strike on Tel Aviv.
The attack was praised by Hamas, with Hamas spokesman Abu Obaida calling it a “qualitative change.” But in addition to Israel’s denial that the missile was hypersonic, some experts also expressed skepticism.
“Right now, the only side talking about hypersonic weapons is the Houthis,” said Mohammed al-Basha, a senior Middle East analyst at Navanti, a risk assessment group.
The Israeli military said it employed air defenses when the missile was detected, but was still assessing the incident. To date, only one other Houthi-launched missile has been reported to have penetrated Israeli territory, near the Red Sea port of Eilat in March.
Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, which began after Hamas-led attackers breached the coastal enclave’s border fence on Oct. 7 and struck southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping another 250, the Houthis have also attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea, portraying the attacks on vessels from a variety of nations as a blockade of Israel over the Gaza war.
Houthi spokesman Saree said that as the first anniversary of the war approaches, Israel should expect more attacks. The Gaza war has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and has devastated the small territory, razing entire districts and displacing virtually the entire population of some 2.3 million people.
Also, in what has become a near-daily exchange of fire along the Israel-Lebanon border, the military said around 40 rockets and other projectiles were fired from Lebanon on Sunday morning. The cross-border attacks have displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.
Lebanon's National News Agency reported that the Israeli military dropped leaflets on a village in southern Lebanon, warning residents that Hezbollah was firing from the area and that residents should leave their homes. Israeli media later reported that the leaflet dropping was done at the initiative of a local commander and did not receive approval from senior military or political leaders.
Netanyahu also hinted that Israel could step up its attacks inside Lebanon, saying the situation “requires a change in the balance of power on our northern border.”
“The status quo will not continue,” he told his Cabinet.
King reported from Tel Aviv and Bulos from Beirut.
