The southern Israeli airport struck by drones launched by the Yemeni Houthi rebels

The Israeli army said that a drone fired by Houthi militants in Yemen violated the Israeli air defenses on Sunday and criticized at the country’s southern airport.

It was one of several drones that the Houthis launched, according to the army, but said that most of them had been intercepted outside Israel.

The Israel Airports Authority said that the drone crashed at the passenger terminal at Ramon International Airport, near the city of Eyilat, the resort.

The Houthis praised an attack on Sunday at Ramon Airport – about 19 km (12 miles) from Eilat on the southern end of Israel – as a “unique and qualitative military operation.”

Nasr El -Din Amer, Vice -President of the Houthi Information Office, wrote on social media: “The enemy airports are unsafe, and foreigners must leave them for their safety,” Nasruddin Amer, Vice -President of the Houthi Information Office, wrote on social media. “Other sensitive targets under the fire.”

The emergency rescue service in Israel, David Adom, said that she had dealt with a 63 -year -old man due to light shrapnel wounds. The damage to Ramon Airport seemed limited, and within two hours, it was reopened with the resumption of regular flights.

This attack comes days after Israeli strikes on the rebellious Yemeni capital, Sana. Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed Al -Rahwi and other officials of the Council of Ministers were killed in a major escalation of the two -year -old conflict between Israel and the group of Iranian -backed volumes in Yemen.

Saying that they were acting in solidarity with the Palestinians, the Houthis began firing rockets and drones after the Hamas attack on October 7 sparked the destroyed Israeli army campaign in Gaza.

The Houthis have climbed their air attacks on Israel in recent months, including by spreading warheads with cluster munitions. They are scattered, smaller explosive projectiles over a large area and difficult for the Israeli air defense system, which objects to most drones and missiles.

The Houthi attacks on Israel rarely caused the Israeli war in October 2023, rarely caused severe damage or hit major targets like airports. But in May, a Houthi missile was struck near Ben Gurion’s main airport in IsraelPaying many international airlines to cancel flights to Tel Aviv for several months.

Israel is pushing forward with the Gaza City Operation

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to move forward in the Israeli operation in Gaza City, with no progress in restarting negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

Netanyahu said at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem: “Our efforts in Gaza in the last stronghold, in fact, the last important stronghold, Gaza City, is part of our efforts to complete the crushing of the suffocating of the Iranian axis.”

Netanyahu claimed that more than 100,000 Palestinians have interrogated the army’s calls to evacuate Gaza City before the operation, a disputed figure by international organizations. The United Nations has reported only 41,000 people among the city’s population of one million people to leave during the past month.

Meanwhile, attempts to re -launch negotiations between Israel and Hamas are stumbled.

Bassem Naim, a member of the Hamas political office, said that the armed group will not put its arms until the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. But he said that Hamas is ready to calm long and will launch the hostages who are still detained in Gaza in exchange for a number of Palestinians who were imprisoned by Israel and withdrawing the full Israeli forces from Gaza.

Nayem said that Hamas is still waiting for Israel to respond to 60 days A ceasefire proposal It was designed by Egyptian brokers and Qatari last month.

The Prime Minister’s office refused to comment on the negotiations.

There are still 48 hostages in Gaza, about 20 of whom Israel believes that they are still alive. The gunmen kidnapped 251 people and killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel during the attack on October 7, 2023.

The Hamas -running Ministry of Health in Gaza said that a total of 64,368 people were killed and 162,776 were wounded since the beginning of the war. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and fighters, but it says that more than half of the losses were women and children.