Netanyahu vows to act against Houthis after attack on Israel’s main airport

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Sunday promised a multi-phased response to Yemen’s Houthis after the Iran-backed militants struck the area of Israel’s main airport with a missile.

“We have acted against them in the past and we will act in the future, but I cannot go into detail ... it will not happen in one bang, but there will be many bangs,” Netanyahu said in a video published on the Telegram messaging platform.

European and US carriers have cancelled flights for the next few days after the missile landed near Ben Gurion international airport. After a ceasefire deal with the Palestinian militant group Hamas in January, many foreign carriers had begun to resume flights to Israel after halting them for much of the last year and a half.

Delta Air Lines said it had cancelled Sunday’s flight from JFK in New York to Tel Aviv and the return flight from Tel Aviv on Monday.

Lufthansa Group, which includes Lufthansa, Swiss, Brussels and Austrian, said it had halted flights to and from Tel Aviv through to Tuesday due to the situation. ITA said it had cancelled flights from Italy to Israel through to Wednesday, while Air France cancelled flights on Sunday, saying customers were being transferred to flights on Monday.

The ballistic missile struck near the airport, where air traffic to and from the US and Europe has been temporarily halted. Photograph: Amir Levy/Getty Images

The Houthis, who control swathes of Yemen, began targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping in late 2023, during the early days of the war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.

The US president, Donald Trump, in March ordered large-scale strikes against the Houthis to reduce their capabilities and deter them from targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Reuters and Agence-France Presse contributed to this report