A missile fell on Tel Aviv International Airport on Sunday after a shot from Yemen, causing a brief interruption of air traffic and threats to Israeli reprisals.
Posted at 7:38 a.m.
Jay DESHMUKH Agency France-Presse
A meeting of the Israeli security firm is scheduled at 7 p.m. locals (12 p.m. Eastern hour), a government source told AFP without more precision.
The missile shooting was claimed by the Houthi rebels who control large sides of Yemen at war, including the capital Sanaa, more than 1800 km from the southern border of Israel. “We have targeted Ben-Gurion airport with a hypersonic ballistic missile that has successfully reached its target,” they said in a statement.
According to an AFP photographer on site, the missile fell into an area planted with trees next to an access ramp for the parking lot of Terminal 3, the most important of the airport, less than a kilometer from the tarmac.
And according to Israeli media, the police are still trying to determine whether the impact of missile “was caused by the Yemeni missile or by an Israeli countermisile.
PHOTO OHAD ZWIGENBERG, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Israeli security forces inspect the area around Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on May 4, 2025.
“This is the first time that a missile has fallen as close to the terminal and landing tracks,” a spokesperson for the Israeli airport authority.
Allies of the Palestinian Islamist Movement Hamas, the Houthis have claimed dozens of missiles and drones against Israel, including shots towards the airport, since the war in Gaza. Almost all of the shots were intercepted.
“We escaped it beautiful”
“What happened this morning had not happened for a long time. Several months ago, we had rockets [tirées par le Hamas] Who had fallen near the airport, but today he has escaped it, “an Israeli framework worked for a foreign airline.
Alert sirens sounded in several regions of Israel where the anti -aircraft defenses have entered action, according to the army.
A strong detonation was heard in the morning inside Terminal 3, noted an AFP journalist. The security personnel immediately asked passengers to go to the shelters.
-PHOTO NIR ELIAS, REUTERS
Israeli police investigate a crater on the site of a missile attack, launched from Yemen, near Ben Gurion airport, Tel-Aviv, on May 4, 2025.
The emergency services reported six injured.
“You can see the area just behind us: a crater has been formed there, several tens of meters and deep by several tens of meters,” said police chief in the Center of Israel, Yaïr Hezroni, in a video with the control tower in the background.
Airport authorities have announced the resumption of air traffic after a brief interruption. “Takeoffs and landings have taken up normally. »»
The European air transport group Lufthansa and Air India announced the suspension of their flights to Tel Aviv until May 6.
“Seven times stronger”
Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to retaliate with the shot of the Houthis. “The one who strikes us will be struck seven times harder”. Israel has already targeted several Houthi objectives in Yemen.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, the Houthis have announced attacks on Israel in “solidarity” with the Palestinians.
They also targets ships which they consider linked to Israel off Yemen, attacks that have led to an intensification of the United States air campaign against the Houthis.
After a suspension of two months, the Yemeni rebels resumed the attacks on Israel with the resumption of the Israeli offensive on Gaza on March 18.
Sixteen dead in Gaza
On the eve of the meeting of the security firm, Israeli media announced that the government had decided to recall tens of thousands of reservists for an expansion of its offensive in Gaza, where new strikes killed 16 Palestinians on Sunday, including at least three children according to local aid.
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu assures that increased military pressure is the only way to force Hamas to make hostages.
The attack on October 7 led to the death of 1218 people on the Israeli side, most civilians, according to an AFP count based on official figures. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 58 are still retained in Gaza, 34 of which were declared dead by the Israeli army.
Israel has sworn to destroy Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, and launched a devastating military reprisal campaign which left at least 52,535 dead, mostly civilians in the Palestinian territory, according to figures from the Ministry of Health of Hamas deemed reliable by the UN.
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