Flights resumed at Israel\u2019s Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv after a failed interception of a missile from Yemen on Sunday forced it to halt operations temporarily. <\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s military said the missile landed in the airport\u2019s vicinity after \u201cseveral attempts\u201d at intercepting it failed, adding that \u201cthe results of the interception are under review.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Iran-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen has repeatedly launched ballistic missiles at Israel, but this appears to be the first time one has landed near the country\u2019s main international airport, a major breach of security at a tightly protected site. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe will attack whoever attacks us sevenfold,\u201d Israel Katz, the defense minister, said in a statement. <\/p>\n
The attack prompted the airport to briefly suspend flights. Trains to and from the airport were also halted and police asked the public to refrain from arriving in the area. <\/p>\n
The incident underscores the Houthis\u2019 continued ability to strike distant targets despite a sustained US military campaign and may raise questions about Israel\u2019s capacity to intercept such attacks. <\/p>\n
Pictures from the scene showed debris from the impact of the missile on the grounds of the airport, littering the road toward the main terminal. A video shared on social media appeared to show the impact of the missile at the airport and a cloud of black smoke rising from the strike. <\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s strike marks the third consecutive day of missile launches from Yemen toward Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces. <\/p>\n
The Houthis have not claimed responsibility for the latest missile, but a spokesman for the militant group has said previous launches targeted military facilities in Israel. Yahya Saree said over the weekend that the rebels fired \u201cPalestine 2\u201d ballistic missiles \u201cin support of our brothers and sister in Gaza.\u201d <\/p>\n
Israel has carried out several strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, including the targeting of a power plant and maritime ports in January. <\/p>\n
The US military has carried out far more extensive strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen in recent weeks, aiming to the group, whose attacks on Red Sea shipping have significantly disrupted global trade. <\/p>\n
The campaign is also aimed at stopping launches targeting Israel, as well as commercial and US Navy vessels operating in the Middle East. Early last month, the cost of US the effort had approached $1 billion in just three weeks, including the deployment of B-2 stealth bombers and the use of hundreds of millions of dollars\u2019 worth of high-end munitions. <\/p>\n
But it has largely failed to disrupt the Houthis\u2019 ability to launch ballistic missiles against Israel. The country\u2019s vaunted missile defense system routinely intercepts the launches, but some have gotten through. <\/p>\n
This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/i> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Flights resumed at Israel\u2019s Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv after a failed interception of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}