Have The Houthis Finally Shut Down Tel Aviv's Airport?

Right, so the Houthis have struck again it seems and by struck, they’ve beyond doubt hit their target this time, as a hypersonic ballistic missile launched from Yemen struck near Terminal 3 of Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport. After having taken many a shot at this target since the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire by Israel, finding their mark marks a significant turning point in the regional escalation surrounding the war in Gaza and Israel’s siege on the Palestinian people, with the Houthis regularly claiming their objectives have been achieved, whilst Israel has consistently reported they intercepted any rockets fired their way. Well for the first time since the end of the ceasefire, a missile originating from Yemen has definitely managed to bypass Israel’s supposedly advanced air defence systems, both the long range Israeli Arrow system and the US provided THAAD defence system and caused real, physical damage on Israeli territory, injuring eight civilians and disrupting international air travel and by saying that international travel to Israel is now unsafe, this time they’ve definitively proven that.
Moreover, it forces a reckoning with the Trump administration’s undeclared and increasingly unpopular military campaign in Yemen—one conducted in the name of defending Israel and combating Iranian influence, yet yielding little strategic success and likely increasing American and civilian casualties. I say likely, because we don’t know and we don’t know because unlike the Biden administration, the Trump one appears to be determined to cover such figure up and have now been called out for it. Without these it becomes virtually impossible to assess or critique these ongoing strikes on Yemen, so what has Trump got to hide about that then?
Right, so the missile strike on Ben Gurion Airport has properly given Israel a shock, because there is no doubt this time that the Houthis found their mark. A long-range hypersonic missile from Yemen striking one of the most fortified areas of Israeli airspace represents a significant blow to Israel and a big win for the Houthis, now able to say beyond doubt that even where the air defences are supposedly the strongest, in and around Tel Aviv, they can now beat them and more to the point the people living there now know it too.
According to reports from multiple outlets, the missile hit close to Terminal 3, the main international terminal at Ben Gurion Airport. The attack injured eight people and temporarily halted all flights, forcing the Israeli government to divert air traffic and prompting at least six international airlines—including Lufthansa, British Airways, and Emirates—to suspend their operations to Tel Aviv well into next week at least.
The Houthis claimed responsibility immediately, declaring that the airport was no longer safe for international travel due to Israel’s continuing siege of Gaza. The statement also framed the attack as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people, as is typical for the group.
Press TV covered the words of Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree in relation to this strike:
‘Yahya Saree, the spokesman for Yemen’s Armed Forces, said in a televised statement that the military operation against the key Israeli airport was conducted with a hypersonic ballistic missile and “hit its target successfully.”
The spokesman pointed out that the results of the operation were the failure of the American and Israeli interceptor systems to repel the projectile, the escape of more than three million Zionists to shelters, and the complete cessation of airport traffic for more than an hour.
Stressing that the operation was in support of the oppressed Palestinian people and their fighters in Gaza, Saree warned in his statement that Ben Gurion is “no longer safe” for air navigation.
“Yemen — its people, leadership, and army — will, with Allah’s help, continue to stand firm and steadfast in the face of American aggression, never abandoning its religious, moral, and humanitarian duty toward the oppressed Palestinian people, regardless of the consequences, until the aggression on Gaza ceases and the siege is lifted,” the spokesman added.’
For decades, Israel has invested heavily in its missile defense network, boasting systems such as the Iron Dome, which is the best known David’s Sling, the Arrow systems and most recently, the US supplied Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD system. Yet the hypersonic ballistic missile from Yemen fired in the early hours of this morning evaded all of these systems and major questions will now be being asked about that.
As you might expect therefore, Israel’s mad Minister of Defence, Israel Katz has launched an internal investigation into how the missile bypassed its layered defences. Officials are now considering whether the Houthis have significantly improved their missile technology—possibly with foreign assistance—or whether the current conflict has exposed cracks in Israel’s technological armour as ongoing strikes prior to the Gaza ceasefire were making clear, with interceptor missile batteries running out of munitions or being destroyed themselves. Is it now all happening again?
Where Netanyahu and Katz have readily threatened retaliation already, as usual, Benny Gantz of the National Unity Party, has chosen to blame Iran, arguing that the missile technology and targeting guidance could only have come from Tehran. There’s no direct evidence to back this claim, its far likelier that these accusations are part of Israel’s ongoing effort to undermine Us-Iran nuclear negotiations, turning every regional flare-up into a pretext to derail that, Israel fearing the US will let Iran continue its nuclear research, no nuclear weapons involved in that whatsoever as both US and UN inspections have proven, but its never stopped Israel before and they won’t stop this nonsense now.
The US has increasingly become embroiled in Yemen since that Gaza ceasefire fell, especially when the Trump administration launched Operation Rough Rider seeking to avert more promised Houthi attacks on Israeli shipping using Red Sea shipping lanes and US warships. The campaign has involved hundreds of airstrikes and the deployment of US naval assets including the USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea and now joined by the USS Carl Vinson in the Gulf of Aden.
Despite the scale of these operations and how many they have carried out, they have failed to make any significant impact on Houthi capabilities. Attacks on both Israeli and American targets have continued unabated, with the most recent strikes prior to the hit on Ben Gurion airport seeing the Truman have to make such evasive manoeuvres, it ended up tossing an F-18 jet and its towing tractor into the sea, before running off northwards, sparking debate as to whether the Truman itself had been hit. In response to that however, the Pentagon has ordered the Truman to remain stationed in the Red Sea.
That order however, rather disturbingly, came a day after reports came out US casualty figures from the public in relation to its undeclared, not at all ratified de facto war on the Houthis. Officials from CENTCOM, the Office of the Secretary of Signalgate, but supposedly of Defence Pete Hegseth, and the White House itself have all refused to disclose how many American service members have been killed or injured since March when Operation Rough Rider began. Now goodness knows we can criticise the administration of genocide Joe Biden for being just as trigger happy in the Middle East in defending Israel, but this kind of information was always readily available and regularly released so whts the deal under Trump?
The lack of accountability has already drawn criticism from veterans groups and members of Congress, as well as alternative and independent media. Without clear data, it becomes nearly impossible to assess the costs of the war, let alone hold decision-makers accountable for the choices they make. This not only undermines democracy but risks repeating the failures of past US military interventions in the Middle East and ought to have more people questioning exactly how bad are matters here, that the US government are continuing with unabated, for no benefit to the American people at all, just for Israel, a nation which more than 52% of Americans are no longer supportive of.
In addition to the shady behind closed doors decision making of little Donnie, the UK has now rejoined the fray against the Houthis too, conducting airstrikes against Houthi positions in what it claims are "targeted precision operations." The Royal Air Force's involvement has now been confirmed therefore, but there’s more to come. It seems perhaps the aforementioned Signalgate bungling that had had JD Vance referring to Europe as pathetic for not fighting for Israel and had Hegseth apparently snarling that Europe were freeloading on the US, might have stirred Keir Starmer into jumping to Trump’s fiddle all the more. After all when the UK was being threatened by Trump over tariffs we saw Keir Starmer seek to placate him with tax cuts for US tech giants instead of standing up to him. Now these insults against Europe have come out, here comes the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales now en route to the Red Sea as part of Carrier Strike Group 25. Officially, this deployment is a routine exercise. However, many observers—particularly those in Yemen—see it as an escalation and a reinforcement of the Western military axis alongside the US and Israel.
The Houthis have responded forcefully to the UK's actions. In a statement released after the latest wave of UK airstrikes, Houthi leadership warned that the United Kingdom would now be treated as part of a "trio of evil," along with the United States and Israel. Nobody in the UK voted for this, Starmer can always find money for war like every other warmongering western leader we can’t see the back of fast enough, especially if it implies servitude and acquiescence to Trump on top of that.
Since October 2023, over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza has been razed north to south and Gaza remains under a total blockade, with aid trucks denied entry. Images of starving children and flattened neighbourhoods have circulated worldwide, fuelling outrage and it is for this reason the Houthis are doing what they are doing, so military strikes against them to preserve the interests of the nation inflicting so much misery is something we aren’t going to accept, not from our own leaders or anyone else.
The Israeli government’s strategy is one of total siege, aimed at forcing a complete surrender from Hamas at the indiscriminate expense of as many innocent Palestinian lives as it takes and even if they got what they wanted they wouldn’t stop, the whole point of the war has nothing to do with hostages, but everything to do with keeping Benjamin Netanyahu in post. And our leaders just keep supporting that aim, their attacks, their actions are to support keeping him in power. Because that is Israel’s aim and they back Israel no matter what.
By shifting blame to Iran, Israel just seeks to keep on doing what it has done for decades to gain advantage and that is destabilise the Middle East. Without evidence, all their narrative, believed unquestioningly as it always is and publicised rampantly by pliant client media does is seek to justify further military action and obstruct those US-Iran nuclear talks. The longer this continues, the greater the risk of a broader regional war.
The Houthi missile strike on Ben Gurion Airport ought to come as a massive warning, instead Israeli arrogance and slavish western loyalty will just see matters doubled down on, to the same ongoing failure to make any difference, costing lives in Yemen and costing American lives that it seems the US are no longer prepared to publicise, which should be alarming to the American people. Why else keep the numbers secret is my line of thinking here. The United States and its allies are entangled in a regional conflict with no clear end, no measurable success, and an alarming lack of transparency. Civilian casualties are mounting in Yemen certainly, but US service members may be getting injured or dying without acknowledgment or public knowledge. Israel continues its war in Gaza with impunity, blocking humanitarian aid and using the cover of war to pursue its own interests and only the Houthis seem prepared to do something about that.
The Trump administration must be compelled to disclose casualty figures. Congress must assert itself and demand oversight of Operation Rough Rider. American people should be lobbying their representatives to that effect too. We here in the UK must do likewise as Starmer’s obsession with military participation, his bootlicking approach to dealing with Trump and his support for Israel without equivocation don’t serve any sense of national interest and merely perpetuates Tony Blair style adventurism with the US. And Israel must be held to account for genocide, as well as its efforts to drag the region into wider conflict.
Meanwhile in what , Israel have been caught out in strikes on a ship carrying aid to Gaza, seeking to break their blockade, but did so from Maltese airspace, just off the Maltese coast, some 2000km away from Gaza! Get all the details of that depraved attack carried out it would appear with assistance from Malta in this video recommendation hre as your suggested next watch. Please do also hit like, share and subscribe if you haven’t done so already, so as to ensure you don’t miss out on all new daily content as well as supporting the channel at the same time, which is very much appreciated, holding power to account for ordinary working class people and I will hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.