Israel vows to hit back against Iran and Houthis after airport attack

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would hit back against the Houthis and Iran after a missile fired by the Tehran-backed militants landed near Israel’s main international airport.

The attack, which injured four people, disrupted flights and left a large crater near a car park within the perimeter of Ben Gurion airport, came as Israel issued call-ups to thousands of reservists in preparation for ratcheting up its offensive in Gaza.

Footage posted on social media showed a huge plume of smoke and dust rising from the site of the missile strike, as well as access roads strewn with debris hurled into the air by the impact.

“I cannot disclose all the details. It’s not ‘bang’ and we’re done — but there will be bangs,” Netanyahu said in a video statement posted on social media, pledging to respond against the Houthis for the strike.

After US President Donald Trump warned he would hold Tehran responsible for further attacks by the Houthis, Netanyahu added that Israel would also respond against Iran: “Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran. Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”

Sunday’s missile launch was the latest of dozens of salvos that the Houthis have fired at Israel since it invaded Gaza in response to Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack. While most have been intercepted, some have slipped through Israel’s air defences, and the Houthis have continued to fire even as the US has bombed hundreds of targets in Yemen in a bid to force them to stop.

Netanyahu was due to discuss both how to respond to the strike on the airport and Israel’s next steps in its war with Hamas in Gaza with officials later on Sunday.

The call-ups of reservists, which the military said would allow it to “go deeper” into Gaza, mark the latest escalation of Israel’s operations in the Palestinian enclave since it broke a fragile ceasefire with Hamas two months ago.

Since then, Israel has cut off supplies of food, fuel, medicine and aid to Gaza’s 2.1mn population, exacerbating extreme hunger and malnourishment in the territory, and driving prices for fruit and vegetables to exorbitant levels in the few places where they can still be obtained.

Israeli forces have also seized swaths of land along Gaza’s borders, as well as in other areas, such as around the southern town of Rafah, and in the Netzarim Corridor, which separates northern and southern Gaza.

However, far-right ministers on whom Netanyahu’s coalition depends for its majority have been demanding that the government order a far bigger operation in the shattered territory, where Hamas is still holding 59 Israeli hostages — fewer than half of whom are still thought to be alive.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s ultranationalist finance minister, said last month that the government would have “no right to exist” if it did not defeat Hamas, occupy Gaza, install a “temporary military government”, free the hostages and implement US President Donald Trump’s proposal to displace Gaza’s entire population — an idea widely regarded as ethnic cleansing.

However, a majority of Israelis want a deal to end the war, and last month numerous reservists signed petitions calling for the government to do a deal with Hamas to end the fighting and free the hostages.

Netanyahu said last week that while bringing home the hostages was a “very important goal” in the war, the “ultimate goal is the victory over our enemies”.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 52,500 people, according to Palestinian officials. During Hamas’s October 7 attack, militants killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials, and took 250 hostage.