TEL AVIV, Israel — A drone launched from Yemen by the Houthi militant group has hit Israel’s southern airport, closing the airspace over southern Israel and halting flights, the Israeli military said Sunday.
Israel said the Houthis launched multiple drones, some of which were intercepted outside of Israel. At least one hit the passenger hall of the Ramon International Airport near the southern Israeli city of Eilat, according to the Israel Airports Authority.
In May, a Houthi missile hit near Israel’s main airport, injuring four people lightly and causing many airlines to cancel their flights to Israel for months. Israel later struck and destroyed the main airport in the rebel-held Yemeni capital of Sanaa.
One person was lightly injured at the airport from shrapnel as a result of the drone, according to Israel’s rescue services Magen David Adom.
Nasruddin Amer, deputy head of the Houthi media office, hailed the attack on social media, calling it “a unique, qualitative military operation.”
“Enemy airports are unsafe, and foreigners must leave them for their own safety,” he wrote. “Other sensitive targets are under fire.”
Sunday’s attack came two weeks after an Israeli strike on Sanaa, the rebel-held capital of Yemen, killed the prime minister of the Houthi government, along with many of his cabinet. Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi was the most senior Houthi official killed in the Israeli-U.S. campaign against the Iranian-backed rebels.
Following al-Rahawi’s killing, the rebels vowed to escalate their attacks against Israel as well as on vessels navigating through a crucial Red Sea shipping route off Yemen.
In their recent attacks, the rebels launched projectiles daily, in some cases multiple times per day, and also began using cluster munitions in the missile attacks on Israel. Cluster munitions open up with smaller explosives that can be harder to intercept, raising the chances of getting through Israel’s air defense system.
The Ramon Airport opened in 2019 and is located some 19 kilometers (12 miles) from the resort city of Eilat on Israel’s southern tip. It serves both domestic and international flights but is much smaller than Israel’s main airport, Ben Gurion Airport, in central Israel.
Also on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to push forward with Israel’s operation in Gaza City, as negotiations between Israel and Hamas continued to falter.
“Our effort in Gaza on the last strongholds, actually the last important stronghold, Gaza City, is part of our effort to complete the crushing of the Iranian axis’s chokehold,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu claimed that more than 100,000 Palestinians have left Gaza City in advance of the operation, though international organizations have countered this figure, as Palestinians questioned where in Gaza could possibly be safe.
Last week, just a few thousand people were leaving each day, with only 41,000 people having evacuated since mid-August, of the approximately 1 million people estimated around Gaza City, according to the United Nations.
Meanwhile, attempts to relaunch negotiations between Israel and Hamas are faltering.
Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, said the militant group won’t lay down its arms until the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. But he said that Hamas is ready for a long-term truce and will release the hostages still being held in Gaza in exchange for a number of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Naim said Hamas is still waiting for Israel to respond to a 60-day ceasefire proposal crafted by Egyptian and Qatari mediators last month.
The Prime Minister’s Office refused to comment on negotiations.
There are 48 hostages still being held in Gaza, around 20 of which Israel believes are still alive. Militants kidnapped 251 people and killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel during the attack that sparked the war on Oct. 7, 2023.
At least 13 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Sunday morning, including six children and three women, according to local hospitals. Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza said that eight people were killed in an Israeli strike on a school where displaced people were sheltering. The Israeli military said it was targeting militants around the school and had warned civilians to evacuate prior to the strike. The military accuses Hamas of hiding weapons and militants inside civilian areas.
Five other people were killed in strikes on tents and apartment buildings in central Gaza and Gaza City, according to local hospitals. Israel’s military did not have immediate comment on the other strikes.
The Gaza Health Ministry said a total of 64,368 have been killed and 162,776 have been wounded since the start of the war. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says more than half of the casualties were women and children.
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Magdy reported from Cairo.
