Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed to retaliate against the Houthis in Yemen and to act against “their patron” Iran, hours after the rebel group struck Ben Gurion Airport with a ballistic missile.
“We, along with the entire world, are under threat from the Houthis. We will not tolerate it and will take very strong retaliatory action against them,” the premier told Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, who is in Israel on an official visit, according to a readout from his office.
“We will always remember that they acted under the orders and with the support of their patron — Iran,” the premier added. “We will do what needs to be done to deliver a proper warning to Iran that we cannot tolerate such acts.”
Netanyahu on Sunday also endorsed a message by US President Donald Trump, in which the American leader vowed to hold Iran responsible for the Houthis’ actions.
“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!” wrote the US president in a post on his Truth Social Platform.
“President Trump is absolutely right!” wrote Netanyahu on X. “Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran. Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
In his post, Trump also asserted that “Iran has played ‘the innocent victim’ of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control.
“They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, ‘Intelligence,'” the US president wrote.
Later Sunday, Iranian Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh said that Tehran will strike back if the United States or Israel attack.
“If this war is initiated by the U.S. or the Zionist regime (Israel), Iran will target their interests, bases and forces – wherever they may be and whenever deemed necessary,” Nasirzadeh told Iranian state TV.
Netanyahu was set to meet with his cabinet on Sunday at 7 p.m. to discuss the expansion of the military campaign in Gaza, fighting in Syria, the Houthi attack and more.
In a video posted to social media that mostly focused on the fight against the Hamas terror group in the Strip, Netanyahu also addressed the Houthis.
“We operated against them in the past and we will operate in the future,” he said. “It’s not ‘bang — that’s it,’” he added, “but there will be bangs.”
A ballistic missile fired by the Houthis impacted on the grounds of Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday morning, injuring six people, none of them seriously.
The blast occurred in a grove of trees alongside an access road close to the airport’s main Terminal 3, several hundred yards from the airport control tower.
Both the Israeli Air Force’s long-range Arrow air defense system and the US’s THAAD system failed to intercept the Houthi missile, defense sources said. The Israeli Air Force’s aerial defense array was investigating the failure.
Though the airport returned to operation shortly after the incident, it sparked a wave of flight cancellations by foreign airlines, with more than 20 flights for Sunday and the coming days, from airlines including British Airways, Air India, the Lufthansa Group and United cancelled.
The Israeli national airline El Al said it was offering special prices to help get Israelis home from Cyprus and Greece and other nearby destinations who were stranded by the cancellations.
Since March 18, when the IDF resumed its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen have launched some 27 ballistic missiles and several drones at Israel. Only around half of them triggered sirens in the country and were shot down, while the others fell short.
The sirens have sent hundreds of thousands of Israelis rushing to shelters at all hours of the night and day, causing a number of injuries in the scramble. The sirens are a precaution against falling debris from intercepts, which have occasionally caused injuries, death and damage.
The Houthis — whose slogan calls for “Death to America, Death to Israel, [and] a Curse on the Jews” — began attacking Israel and maritime traffic in November 2023, a month after the October 7 Hamas attack.
In recent weeks, the United States has been carrying out massive airstrikes in Yemen against the Houthis, targeting their leadership and infrastructure.
Emanuel Fabian, Sharon Wrobel and agencies contributed to this report.