JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Sunday to respond against Yemen and Iran after a Houthi missile struck the grounds of Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, disrupting air traffic.

Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting to discuss more strikes, according to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority KAN.

“(US) President (Donald) Trump is absolutely right! 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,” he wrote on X following the meeting.

He also shared a March 17 post by Trump in which the US president attacked the Houthis for targeting Israel amid its genocide in Gaza.

KAN reported that Netanyahu’s security consultation resulted in a “clear decision” to carry out further attacks on Yemen.

Following Netanyahu’s threats, the Houthis announced the imposition of a comprehensive aerial blockade on Israel in response to the expansion of its military operations in Gaza, according to a statement by the group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree.

The air blockade involves “repeatedly targeting Israel’s airports, foremost among them Lod Airport (Ben Gurion),” he added.

“We call on all international airlines to take this announcement seriously and immediately cancel all flights to the criminal enemy’s airports in order to safeguard the safety of their aircraft and passengers,” Saree said.

The Houthis have repeatedly announced ballistic missile launches against Ben Gurion Airport, but Sunday marked the first time that Israel confirmed that a Yemeni missile landed near the facility and directly disrupted air traffic.

Israel’s Channel 13 said that several international carriers including Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Air India, ITA Airways and Air Europa had canceled their Sunday flights to Tel Aviv.

Israel’s Arrow air defense system and the US THAAD system both failed to intercept the missile, which caused minor injuries to seven people and grounded flights for about an hour, according to the channel.

Yemen has faced an intensified US military campaign since mid-March, including around 1,300 air and naval strikes, resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties, according to the Houthis.

The Houthis have targeted ships passing through the Red and Arabian seas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden since November 2023 in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where nearly 52,500 people have been killed in a brutal Israeli assault for more than 19 months, most of them women and children.

The group halted attacks when a Gaza ceasefire was declared in January between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas but resumed them after Israel's renewed airstrikes on Gaza in March.

The Israeli army also continued its systematic home demolitions in Rafah in southern Gaza amid gunfire by helicopter gunships, witnesses said.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.