A few dozen meters away and it would have been a massacre . A ballistic missile launched from Yemen at 9.22 on Sunday morning hit one of the access roads to Terminal 3 of Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv , wounding six people and leaving a large crater on the ground. The Arrow defense systems and the American Thaad were unable to shoot down the missile. Indeed, according to an initial indiscretion leaked from the Air Force investigation into the failed interception, the anti-aircraft did not detect the missile in flight towards Israeli territory.
The pro-Iranian Houthi group claimed responsibility for the attack, stressing its ability "to hit sensitive Israeli targets." And now it is reiterating by inviting airlines to "cancel flights."
Hamas exults for having mocked "the most advanced defense systems in the world". For Israel it was a day of fear and anger, with the prime minister and the defense minister making fiery statements.
“The Houthi attacks come from Iran,” Benjamin Netanyahu said, sharing on X a March post by Donald Trump accusing Tehran of funding the Yemeni group. “Israel will respond to the attack on our main airport and, at a time and place of our choosing, also to their Iranian terror masters,” the prime minister threatened.
Former head of the Israeli Civil Aviation Authority Avner Yarkoni recalled that " it is the first time that a missile has directly hit Ben Gurion Airport ." That is, a strategic site with high symbolic value for any country in the world.
In November, a Hezbollah rocket hit a parking lot on the perimeter of the airport, but without the dramatic result achieved this time by the Houthis. The explosion, which occurred almost simultaneously with the alarm sirens, panicked travelers who did not have time to reach protected areas. "My body flew into the air with the explosion. I saw sand and mud rising," one of the injured told Ynet. A woman hit by shrapnel described anguished moments: "There's a parking lot there, there's no shelter, I started running. I took it with a bit of indifference, 'it's a missile from Yemen, there's time,' I said to myself. A moment later I saw the missile fall right in front of me. The shrapnel hit me. I ended up on the ground, I felt panic, there was glass everywhere," she said.
