Air traffic at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv was temporarily halted and the State Cup final at Bloomfield Stadium in the city center was suspended on Thursday evening after the Israeli military announced it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen. This is the 16th missile the Houthis have claimed to have launched toward Israel this May, along with six drones, according to the group's announcements.
Channel 12, a private Israeli broadcaster, reported that air traffic at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv was temporarily halted due to a missile being launched from Yemen.
The Israeli occupation army said in a brief statement: "In continuation of the warnings that were activated a short time ago in a number of areas within the country's territory, one missile launched from Yemen was intercepted."
In the same context, the rocket launch led to the suspension of the State Cup final match being held at Bloomfield Stadium in central Tel Aviv. Israeli President Isaac Herzog was evacuated from the stadium to a safe location, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
Meanwhile, the Houthi group claimed to have launched a hypersonic ballistic missile attack on Ben Gurion Airport, in the first response to Israel's bombing of Sana'a International Airport.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement that "the group's missile force carried out a military operation targeting Ben Gurion Airport with a hypersonic ballistic missile." Saree asserted that the operation "successfully achieved its goal," forcing millions of Israelis to "flee to shelters and halting air traffic at the airport."
He explained that the operation comes as "a victory for the oppressed Palestinian people and their mujahideen, and a rejection of the crime of genocide committed by the Zionist enemy against our brothers in the Gaza Strip." Saree stressed that "the Yemeni armed forces (affiliated with the group) will continue to perform their duty towards the Palestinian people until the aggression stops and the siege is lifted."
He stressed: "We will respond to any Israeli aggression against Yemen with new support operations, including the continued ban on air traffic to and from Ben Gurion Airport."
The Houthi group insists on continuing to launch rockets at Israel as long as Tel Aviv continues its war of genocide against the Gaza Strip.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with full American support, has been waging a genocidal war in Gaza, killing and wounding more than 177,000 Palestinians, most of them children and women, and leaving more than 11,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands displaced
