Yemen's Houthis claim responsibility for fresh missile attack on Israel's Ben Gurion Airport

Sanaa/Jerusalem, May 16 (IANS) Yemen's Houthi group has said that it had launched a new ballistic missile attack on Ben Gurion Airport in central Israel, which was reportedly intercepted by Israeli defence systems.

"We carried out a qualitative military operation targeting Ben Gurion Airport, using a hypersonic ballistic missile," Houthi's military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said on Thursday night in a statement aired by the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.

The spokesperson said the Houthis' operations "to impose a ban on air navigation at Ben Gurion Airport" will continue until Israel ends its offensive and blockade against the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip, Xinhua news agency reported.

Earlier in the night, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.

Following the launch, the IDF issued a smartphone application alert to residents in areas of central Israel. About two minutes later, sirens were activated in those areas, sending residents to take shelter.

Israel's national emergency service, Magen David Adom, reported that there were no casualties, except for several cases of panic and people bruised while rushing to shelter.

Israel's state-owned Kan TV News published footage of parts of the missile falling in the Israeli settlement of Alon Shvut in the West Bank.

The Houthis have intensified their attacks against Israel since the Houthi group struck a ceasefire deal with Washington last week, in which the Houthis pledged not to target US warships in the Red Sea in return for the US military halting airstrikes against the Houthi targets in Yemen.

The Israeli army early Wednesday ordered Yemeni residents to immediately evacuate the seaports of Ras Isa, Al-Hudaydah, and Salif ahead of potential airstrikes.

The Houthis have targeted ships passing through the Red and Arabian seas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden since November 2023 in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where more than 52,900 people have been killed in a brutal Israeli assault for more than 19 months, most of them women and children.

The group halted attacks when a Gaza ceasefire was declared in January between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas but resumed them after Israel's renewed airstrikes on Gaza in March.

Last week, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi announced a ceasefire between the Houthi group and the US administration. It came shortly after President Donald Trump said the Houthi group agreed to halt attacks on commercial ships.

The Houthi group confirmed the ceasefire with Washington, but said that it has no relation with its confrontation with Israel in support of the Palestinian people.

--IANS

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