The Houthis in Yemen fired a missile at central Israel on Sunday morning, triggering sirens across central Israel, the Shefela, Shomron and the Jerusalem area.
In a first, parts of the missile fell in the Ben-Gurion airport area, which was packed with passengers returning from the March of the Living ceremonies held in Europe for Yom HaShoah. The impact site was in a field near Terminal 3.
Several people were injured from the blast near Terminal 3, the main terminal for international flights, and there was extensive property damage in the area.
A man in his 50s was moderately injured, and two women, ages 54 and 38, were mildly injured by the blast. A 64-year-old man was lightly injured by flying shrapnel, and two women, ages 34 and 22, were injured while running to a protected space. Two people at the scene suffered from shock.
MDA and Hatzalah paramedics administered emergency medical aid at the scene and evacuated the wounded to hospitals.
Following the incident, the IDF confirmed that it failed to intercept the missile, although air missile defense forces made several attempts to do so. The incident is under investigation.
Pinchas Idan, the Airports Authority workers’ union chairman, told Ynet: “We all entered the shelters; a plane had just landed. We heard a loud explosion close to the planes parked there. We were very lucky because there was a plane in the air right then.”
The missile was the fifth one the Houthis fired at Israel in two days.
The moment of impact:
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
This was the warhead hitting a field next to the airports access road.
Shrapnal would not kick up so much earth in all directions or leave a plum of black smoke like this.