Netanyahu Vows Revenge as Houthi Missile Hits Near Israel's Key Airport

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed a multi-phased response to Yemen's Houthis after the rebels struck the area of Israel's main airport, wounding six people and prompting several major airlines to suspend flights.

- Agencies

TEL AVIV/CAIRO:

The Israeli military confirmed that the attack, which gouged a large crater in the perimeter of Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport, was launched from Yemen and had struck despite "several attempts... to intercept the missile".

In a video published on Telegram, Netanyahu said Israel had "acted against" the Iran-backed rebels in the past and "will act in the future".

"It will not happen in one bang, but there will be many bangs," the Israeli prime minister added, referring to the promised retaliation, without going into further detail.

A police video showed officers standing on the edge of a deep hole in the ground with the control tower visible behind them. No damage was reported to airport infrastructure.

The police reported a "missile impact" at Israel's main international gateway. An AFP photographer said the missile hit near the parking lots of Terminal 3, the airport's largest. The crater was just hundreds of metres from the tarmac.

"You can see the area just behind us: a crater was formed here, several dozen metres wide and several dozen metres deep," central Israel's police chief, Yair Hezroni, said in the video.

The Israel Airports Authority said: "This is the first time a missile has fallen so close to the terminal and the runways."