In a rare hit, a drone fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels strikes Israel's southern airport

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TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A drone fired by the Houthi militants in Yemen breached Israel's multilayered air defenses on Sunday and slammed into the country's southern airport, the Israeli military said, briefly shutting down commercial airspace and diverting flights over southern Israel.

Israel said Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked with several drones, most of which were intercepted outside of Israel.

At least one of the drones slipped through Israel's defense system and crashed into the passenger terminal at the Ramon International Airport near the resort city of Eilat, the Israeli Airports Authority said, blowing out glass windows and sending smoke plumes billowing.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for the strike.

Israel's Magen David Adom emergency rescue service said it treated a 63-year-old man for light shrapnel wounds. The damage to Ramon Airport appeared limited and within a couple of hours it reopened as normal flights resumed.

The attack comes days after Israeli strikes on Yemen's rebel-held capital of Sanaa killed the Houthi prime minister and other officials in his Cabinet in a major escalation of the nearly 2-year-old conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group in Yemen.

Saying that they were acting in solidarity with the Palestinians, the Houthis began firing missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack ignited the Israeli military's devastating campaign in Gaza.

After Israel's targeted killing of Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi last Thursday, the militants vowed to escalate their attacks targeting Israel and merchant ships navigating the vital trade route through the Red Sea off Yemen.

The Houthis hailed Sunday's attack on Ramon Airport — some 19 kilometers (12 miles) from Eilat on Israel's southern tip — as “a unique, qualitative military operation.”

“Enemy airports are unsafe, and foreigners must leave them for their own safety,” Nasruddin Amer, deputy head of the Houthi media office, wrote on social media. “Other sensitive targets are under fire.”

Shortly before Sunday's strike, the Israeli military said that it had intercepted three Houthi attack drones near Israel's border with Egypt but failed to detect a fourth drone that hit Ramon Airport without setting off air raid sirens. The military said it was looking into what happened.

The Houthis have stepped up their aerial attacks on Israel in recent months, including by deploying warheads with cluster munitions that scatter smaller munitions over a large area and challenge Israel's air defense system that otherwise intercepts most drones and missiles.

Houthi attacks on Israel, while frequent since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October 2023, rarely cause major damage or manage to hit significant targets like airports. But in May, a Houthi missile hit near Israel's main Ben Gurion Airport, prompting many international airlines to cancel flights to Tel Aviv for months.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed to push forward with Israel’s operation in Gaza City, as negotiations between Israel and Hamas continued to falter.

“Our effort in Gaza on the last strongholds, actually the last important stronghold, Gaza City, is part of our effort to complete the crushing of the Iranian axis’s chokehold,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu claimed that more than 100,000 Palestinians have left Gaza City in advance of the operation, though international organizations have countered this figure, as Palestinians questioned where in Gaza could possibly be safe.

Last week, just a few thousand people were leaving each day, with only 41,000 people having evacuated since mid-August, of the approximately 1 million people estimated around Gaza City, according to the United Nations.

Meanwhile, attempts to relaunch negotiations between Israel and Hamas are faltering.

Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, said the militant group won’t lay down its arms until the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. But he said that Hamas is ready for a long-term truce and will release the hostages still being held in Gaza in exchange for a number of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

Naim said Hamas is still waiting for Israel to respond to a 60-day ceasefire proposal crafted by Egyptian and Qatari mediators last month.

The Prime Minister's Office refused to comment on negotiations.

There are 48 hostages still being held in Gaza, around 20 of which Israel believes are still still alive. Militants kidnapped 251 people and killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel during the attack that sparked the war on Oct. 7, 2023.

At least 13 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Sunday morning, including six children and three women, according to local hospitals. Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza said that eight people were killed in an Israeli strike on a school where displaced people were sheltering. The Israeli military said it was targeting a militants around the school and had warned civilians to evacuate before the strike. The military accuses Hamas of hiding weapons and militants inside civilian areas.

Five other people were killed in strikes on tents and apartment buildings in central Gaza and Gaza City, according to local hospitals. Israel’s military did not have immediate comment on the other strikes.

The Gaza Health Ministry said a total of 64,368 have been killed and 162,776 have been wounded since the start of the war. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says more than half of the casualties were women and children.

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Magdy reported from Cairo.