The recent escalation between Israel and the Iranian-backed Houthi in Yemen reflects the venerable tribal principles governing the region since biblical antiquity. In punishing evil intentions, “You shall not show pity; life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (Deut. 19:21). In this week’s case, airport for airport.
Around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6, the Houthi-controlled Sana’a International Airport in Yemen was “completely disabled” by Israeli Air Force (IAF) fighter jets in response to the Houthi missile attack on Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport on Sunday morning.
For many in central Israel, this week began with the mobile app alert system indicating the threat of a long-range missile minutes before local sirens went off around 9:22 on Sunday morning. A Houthi-launched ballistic missile plummeted down near an access road at Ben Gurion’s main terminal, a few hundred yards from the control tower and tarmac. “A deviation of half a degree would have changed the picture, with irreversible damage to life and property,” noted the Israeli Defense Force (IDF).
Footage of the explosion captured by security cameras and shared on social media shows debris and shrapnel raining down on cars that had pulled over because of sirens. A large crater several yards wide and deep was left in a tree grove next to the access road. Six people were treated by the Magen David Adom emergency medical unit for injuries.
Thirty minutes later, the military reopened Israeli airspace, and Israel’s largest and primary international airport resumed flight activity. However, most foreign carriers, including the German Lufthansa group, Delta, and United, have suspended flights until next week or later.
The Houthi missile managed to evade Israel’s Arrow high-altitude defense systems. Initial investigations by the IAF deemed the failure a “technical issue” with the Arrow’s interceptor missile that failed to neutralize the incoming threat. The US military has also deployed two THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) batteries in Israel to reinforce high-altitude defense for scenarios such as this. Yet, there is no indication they were activated or effective on Sunday morning.
Amir Bar Shalom, military analyst for Israel’s Army Radio, cautioned that Israel must “take this threat seriously,” adding that the precision of the Houthi missile was “accurate” and “impressive.” “We have to check whether it’s our mistake [that the missile hit] or whether we have a new kind of threat here,” Amir concluded. Iran’s development of long-range ballistic and hypersonic missiles, which it exports to terrorist proxies in Lebanon and Yemen, poses continual challenges to Israel’s aerial defenses.
The Houthi wasted no time claiming responsibility for the attack. The group’s spokesman, Yahya Saree, announced in a televised statement that the Houthi were enforcing a “comprehensive aerial blockade” on Israel and called on international airlines to “cancel all scheduled flights” because Ben Gurion Airport is “no longer safe for air travel.”
Hours after the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Defense Minister Israel Katz and other defense officials to determine potential responses. “We acted before, we will act in the future too,” Netanyahu posted on Telegram. “It’s not ‘one and done’ — but there will be hits.”
The first retaliatory hit occurred on Monday evening when 20 IAF fighter jets dropped 50 munitions on Houthi positions in the Hodeida port and targeted a cement factory in the nearby city of Bajil. Israeli media described the strikes as “very powerful” and echoed reports of massive fires in Hodeida resulting from the IAF’s use of a thermobaric bomb. Hodeida has been the target of multiple U.S. and Israeli airstrikes in the past, as the port facilities function as the import terminal for Iranian weapons.
The Houthis’ response to Monday night appeared unfazed. “The aggressive Zionist-American raids on civilian facilities will not affect our military operations,” the group’s media office said, reiterating that “Tel Aviv is no longer safe. We are serious about imposing a complete aerial blockade.”
The Houthis’ rhetoric and display of confidence — either genuine or tactical bluff — questions the effectiveness of Israel’s retaliation and the US military’s $1 billion offensive campaign against Houthi positions in March and April. As B-2 stealth bombers inflicted heavy damage to the group’s economic and military infrastructure, the terrorists only appeared more emboldened, launching over 27 ballistic missiles and multiple drones at Israel over the past month (about one attack per day), culminating in Sunday’s direct strike on Israel’s airport.
Israel’s second retaliatory hit came on Tuesday, May 6, undoubtedly carrying as much symbolic weight as strategic significance: If you so much as hit an access road, we’ll destroy your entire airport.
An hour before the IAF jets reached Sanaa, IDF Arabic-language spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee issued an urgent warning to Yemeni civilians to “evacuate the airport area immediately.” Although the Sanaa airport is designated a civilian facility, the Houthi regime has transformed it into a hub for transferring terrorist weapons and operatives.
As expected, the Houthis responded to their demolished airport with confident threats of retaliation, adhering to the same “eye for eye…airport for airport” principles that have spiraled this war into never-ending tit-for-tat vengeances.
What makes this episode more critical is its timing within other rapidly escalating theaters of the war. The Houthi have pledged solidarity with Hamas, and their war on Israel is contingent on the situation in Gaza. This became evident after the Houthis halted their attacks on Israel during the Israel-Hamas ceasefire earlier this year, resuming their missile and drone attacks only after the IDF relaunched its offensive in Gaza in March.
Last week, the IDF called up tens of thousands of reservists as Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet approved a new plan to significantly broaden the military offensive in Gaza. The new plan, dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots,” entails retaining territory in the Gaza Strip, preventing Hamas from controlling humanitarian aid, and relocating Gazan civilians or allowing them to voluntarily emigrate abroad. The massive offensive will be enacted if Hamas fails to reach a hostage deal by the time President Donald Trump concludes his visit to the Middle East next week (May 13-16).
If “Gideon’s Chariots” opens an unprecedented chapter in the Gaza war, then Amir Bar Shalom’s caution of a new kind of Houthi threat must be taken seriously to prevent a more disastrous repeat of Sunday morning.
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