Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Friday : "The Houthi armed forces' missile force carried out a qualitative military operation targeting Ben Gurion Airport with a hypersonic ballistic missile, successfully achieving its goal."
"Israeli interception systems failed to intercept it, causing millions of Zionists to rush to shelters and halting airport operations for about an hour," he added in a statement on Telegram.
Saree indicated that "the Houthis' drone air force carried out another military operation targeting a vital target (which he did not mention) of the Israeli enemy in the occupied Jaffa (Tel Aviv) area, using a Jaffa drone."
He continued: "We warn airlines that have not yet responded to the ban that they must quickly halt their flights to Israel, as other airlines have done."
Saree affirmed that "the decision to ban air traffic to occupied Palestinian airports, as well as the ban on Israeli ships passing through the Red and Arabian Seas, in addition to the support operations, will continue until the aggression on Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted."
The occupation threatens Yemen
In response, Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz threatened, in a post on the X platform, to "respond forcefully" to the missile launched from Yemen earlier today.
Katz said the Houthis continue to launch what he claimed are "Iranian missiles" at Israel, adding, "As we promised previously, we will respond forcefully in Yemen wherever necessary."
On Sunday, the Houthi group announced an air blockade on Israel in response to its expanding military operations against Gaza.
On Friday, millions of Israelis rushed to shelters after air raid sirens sounded across large areas of central Israel following the detection of a missile launch from Yemen. Air traffic was also temporarily halted at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv following the launch, which the Israeli military later claimed to have intercepted.
The Israeli army said in a statement: "Alerts were activated in several areas within the country, following the detection of a missile launch from Yemen." In another statement, it claimed that "the missile was successfully intercepted."
The Israeli military did not provide further details, but the private Israeli Channel 14 reported that the missile was intercepted by the Arrow anti-missile system.
The channel added that the US THAAD system failed to intercept the missile for the second time in a week, having failed last Sunday to intercept a missile that landed near Ben Gurion Airport.
Several international airlines have suspended flights to Tel Aviv since Sunday, for varying periods, after a rocket fired from Yemen fell near Ben Gurion Airport.
This is the second missile Israel has claimed to have fired from Yemen toward it since launching extensive airstrikes on Sanaa last Sunday, including the bombing of Sanaa International Airport. The Houthis announced on Wednesday that they had launched a missile and a drone toward Israel, while the Israeli military claimed to have intercepted the drone and that the missile had fallen outside the border.
But today's missile is the first since last Sunday that Tel Aviv has announced it intercepted inside the country.
With full American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 172,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing.
