Houthi rebels claim they tried to assassinate Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a missile attack as he returned to Tel Aviv from the US.
The strike came just hours after Israeli jets carried out devastating airstrikes on Beirut, killing Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
Large explosions were heard across central Israel after a missile was fired from Yemen.
Israel’s military said its air defence systems had shot down the missile, which Houthi militants Sid they had fired at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv.
The rebels said the attack was timed to coincide with the arrival back in Israel of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu was returning to the country from New York, where he had given an address to the United Nations Assembly on Friday.
Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement: “The operation was carried out with a Palestine 2 ballistic missile.
“The Yemeni armed forces – along with all the honourable and free people of the nation – continue to respond to the crimes of the Israeli enemy, and will not hesitate to raise the level of escalation in response to the requirements of the stage and participate in the defence of Gaza and Lebanon.
“These operations will cease only after the cessation of the aggression against Gaza and Lebanon.”
Iran’s Supreme leader vowed to avenge the death of Nasrallah, saying others would continue his work and take the fight to Israel.
“Nasrallah was not an individual. He was a path and a school of thought and the path will be continued,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a statement read on state television.
It added: “The blood of the martyr shall not go unavenged.”
Netanyahu said this evening that the death of Nasrallah was a “historic turning point”.
He added that Israel had “settled the score” with those responsible for the deaths of “countless Israelis” and many foreign citizens.
The Israeli Prime Minister said he gave the order for the attack, as airstrikes on Hezbollah had not done enough damage.
He called Nasrallah a “master murderer” and said he was “the central engine of Iran’s axis of evil”.
