The top U.N. humanitarian official in Yemen says Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen’s main airport as a civilian Airbus 320 with hundreds of passengers on board was landing this week

Israel is signaling a wider campaign against Houthi militants in Yemen, a mountainous and impoverished country more than 1,000 miles from Israeli territory.

An advanced U.S. military anti-missile system was used in Israel to try to intercept a projectile for the first time since President Joe Biden placed the system in Israel in October, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

In response, Houthi forces targeted Israel's Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv with a hypersonic missile early Friday morning, the Houthis said in a statement. The missile was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

Tens of thousands of protesters joined a weekly demonstration in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Friday to show solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has banned the pan-Arab Al Jazeera network and accused six of its Gaza reporters of being militants. The Qatar-based broadcaster denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its war coverage, which has focused heavily on civilian casualties from Israeli military operations.

Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says he was close to the departure lounge when it was hit.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a member of the plane’s crew was injured and that he and U.N. colleagues were safe. Israel said it targeted Houthi militant infrastructure.

Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen’s main airport as a civilian Airbus 320 with hundreds of passengers on board was landing and a U.N. delegation was waiting to leave, the U.N.’s top humanitarian official in Yemen said Friday.

General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has revealed he was inside an airport in the capital of Yemen when Israeli forces launched a deadly strike on the facility.On Friday, the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency reported that the rebels' forces had targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.

Israel has severely weakened Hamas and Hezbollah. Now it's going after another member of Iran's so-called axis of resistance: the Houthi rebels of Yemen.