(Al Jazeera Media Network) The Houthis have launched a hypersonic missile at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, days after the Israeli army broke a ceasefire in Gaza, the Yemeni group said.
“The Yemeni armed forces carried out a qualitative military operation targeting Ben Gurion airport in the occupied Jaffa region with a Palestine-2 hypersonic ballistic missile,” Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said on Thursday.
He said the operation “successfully achieved its objective,” without elaborating. It was the second such attack since the United States began a new campaign of air raids against the rebels earlier this week.
The Israeli military said it intercepted the missile before it entered the country’s territory early on Thursday. Sirens sounded in several areas in Israel after the projectile was fired, the military said in a post on Telegram.
The Israeli police said sirens were heard in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel’s ambulance service said no serious injuries were reported.
The US has targeted Yemen with waves of strikes since Saturday, and the Houthis have declared they will escalate their attacks, including on Israel, in response. The US attacks have killed at least 31 people.
On Tuesday, the Houthis said they had fired a ballistic missile towards Israel and would expand their range of targets in the coming days in retaliation for Israel breaking the ceasefire in Gaza.
Israel’s renewed attacks since Tuesday have killed at least 710 Palestinians and injured more than 900 others, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
The Houthis have carried out more than 100 attacks on shipping since Israel’s war on Gaza began in late 2023, saying they are acting in solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump renewed his call for Iran to end its support for the Houthis, pledging that the Yemeni group will be defeated by Washington.
While the Houthis are allied with Iran, it is not clear how much they rely on Iranian support or whether Tehran can order them to stop their attacks.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday said the US strikes in Yemen were a “crime that must be stopped.”
“This attack on the people of Yemen, on Yemeni civilians, is also a crime that must be stopped,” said Khamenei according to a video published on his website.
