AFP, TEL AVIV

A missile landed inside the perimeter of Israel’s main airport yesterday, wounding six people, halting flights and gouging a wide crater, in an attack claimed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The Israeli military said “several attempts were made to intercept” the missile that was launched from Yemen, a rare Houthi attack that penetrated Israel’s air defences.

A video issued by Israel’s police force showed officers standing on the edge of a deep crater with the control tower visible in the distance behind them. No damage was reported to airport buildings or runways.

The police reported a “missile impact” at Ben Gurion airport, Israel’s main international gateway. An AFP photographer said the missile hit near the parking lots of Terminal 3, the airport’s largest, with the crater less than a kilometre (0.6 miles) away from the closest tarmac. Germany’s Lufthansa, Air India suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv until May 6.

The armed wing of Palestinian group Hamas praised the missile attack.

“Yemen... escalates its attacks on the heart of the illegitimate Zionist entity, surpassing the most advanced defence systems in the world and striking its targets with precision,” Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s civil defence agency yesterday said Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory killed 16 people, including at least three children.

Israel was issuing orders to call up tens of thousands of reservists ahead of an expanded offensive in Gaza, Israeli media reported later on Saturday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked truce mediator Qatar.

Netanyahu accused the gas-rich Gulf state of “playing both sides with its double talk”. Posting on X, he said Qatar had to “decide if it’s on the side of civilization or if it’s on the side of Hamas barbarism”.

Several news outlets reported the military had begun sending the orders for reservists to replace conscripts and active-duty soldiers in Israel and the occupied West Bank so they can be redeployed to Gaza.

A military spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied the reports, but relatives of AFP journalists were among those who received mobilisation orders.

Hamas on Saturday released footage of an apparently wounded Israeli-Russian hostage held in Gaza as 11 Palestinians, including three infants, were killed in a strike on the territory, its civil defence agency said.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 2,396 people had been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll from the war to 52,495.

Israel halted aid deliveries to Gaza, saying Hamas had diverted supplies. Israel says the blockade is meant to pressure Hamas members into releasing hostages held in the Palestinian territory.

UN agencies have urged Israel to lift restrictions, saying Gazans have been experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe and warning of famine.

The Houthis, who control swathes of Yemen, have launched missiles and drones targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war.