JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL

Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport was briefly shut down on Wednesday after a missile strike was launched from Yemen, local media said.

According to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, the operations were temporarily suspended at the airport after a missile was detected.

The Israeli army said in a statement through the US social media company X that the missile was intercepted.

The newspaper said that the airport was later reopened after the interception.

Israeli Channel 12 said that air-raid sirens were sounded in Tel Aviv and West Jerusalem for the first time since the assassination of Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Ghalib Al-Rahawi in an Israeli strike in the Yemeni capital Sanaa last week.

The Israeli army also said that another missile from Yemen was intercepted by its Air Force.

Yedioth Ahronoth said that the missile strike triggered sirens in dozens of settlements and towns in the Dead Sea area, the Negev in the south, and central Israel.

There was no confirmation from the Houthi group of the attacks.

The Yemeni Houthi group intensified missile and drone strikes on Israeli targets after the Israeli attack that killed 12 top officials, including the prime minister and nine ministers on Thursday.

Since November 2023, the Houthis have launched missile and drone strikes on Israeli targets and targeted commercial shipping in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Arabian Sea in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where more than 63,600 people have been killed in an Israeli genocidal war.