A Houthi drone strikes an Israeli airport in a rare hit as Israel steps up Gaza City attacks

TEL AVIV — A drone fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels breached Israel’s multilayered air defenses Sunday and slammed into the country’s southern airport, the Israeli military said, blowing out windows, wounding one person and briefly shutting down commercial airspace.

The damage to Ramon International Airport appeared limited and flights resumed within hours. The Houthis claimed responsibility for the strike.

The attack follows Israeli strikes on Yemen’s rebel-held capital that killed the Houthi prime minister and other top officials in a major escalation of the nearly two-year-old conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group.

In Gaza City, the Israeli military Sunday leveled another high-rise tower that housed hundreds of displaced Palestinians and urged people to move south as it intensified its offensive on the city.

Meanwhile, a breakthrough Israeli Supreme Court decision ruled that Israel was not providing Palestinian detainees in its custody with enough food to ensure basic sustenance. It ordered the state to “guarantee basic living conditions in accordance with the law” for the thousands of Palestinians in its detention facilities. Many of them have been arrested as part of Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank since the group’s deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Sunday’s ruling, made in response to a petition by Israeli human rights groups alleging starvation in Israeli prisons, marked a rare instance of Israeli legal restraint on its own war policies that have drawn indignation and outrage abroad.

After Israel’s targeted killing of Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi late last month, the militants vowed to escalate their attacks targeting Israel and merchant ships navigating the vital Red Sea trade route.

On Sunday, one of several Houthi drones launched from Yemen slipped through Israel’s defense system and crashed into the passenger terminal at the Ramon International Airport near the resort city of Eilat, the Israeli Airports Authority said, sending smoke plumes billowing, diverting flights over southern Israel and inflicting light shrapnel wounds on a 63-year-old man.

Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the group had fired eight drones at Israel in a sign the rebels “will escalate their military operations and not back down from their support for Gaza.” He warned that Israeli airports “are unsafe and will be continuously targeted.”

The Israeli military said it intercepted three Houthi attack drones near Israel’s border with Egypt and was investigating why it failed to detect the fourth that struck Ramon Airport as a hostile aircraft. The drone did not set off air raid sirens at the airport.

Saying that they were acting in solidarity with the Palestinians, the Houthis began firing missiles and drones into Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel ignited the Israeli military’s devastating campaign in Gaza. Hamas militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted over 250 in the attack.

While frequent, the aerial attacks from Yemen have not caused significant damage in Israel. But in rare cases they have managed to hit strategic targets such as airports.

Before Sunday’s assault, the most damaging Houthi attack was in May, when a Houthi missile struck near Israel’s main Ben Gurion Airport, prompting international airlines to cancel flights to Tel Aviv for months.

The Israeli military said it razed another high-rise building in Gaza City on Sunday, shortly after military spokesperson Avichay Adraee ordered the evacuation of people from Al-Ra’iya Tower, a seven-story building in a southern Gaza City neighborhood, and from nearby tents.

It’s the third Gaza City high-rise leveled in as many days as Israel ramps up its offensive to take control of what it portrays as the last remaining Hamas stronghold, urging Palestinians to flee parts of Gaza City for a designated humanitarian zone in the territory’s south.

Many Palestinians say they’re too wounded, weak or exhausted to uproot themselves again for jam-packed, increasingly unsanitary encampments in the south that aid workers say are unprepared to handle the influx. They say there are no guarantees of safety even in the humanitarian zone if past Israeli strikes are any indication.

“Every time we move to a place, we get displaced from it,” said Shireen Al-Lada, who fled south from eastern Gaza City after her house in the once-bustling urban neighborhood of Zeitoun was destroyed.

Israel said the building targeted Sunday had been used by Hamas for intelligence-gathering activities. Hamas denied the accusations, calling it “a false pretext meant to justify bombing residential blocks.”

It was unclear how many people had been killed or wounded in the attack.

Earlier Sunday, officials at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital reported that Israeli strikes on a school where displaced people were sheltering and on tents and apartment buildings killed at least 13 Palestinians, including six children and three women.

The Israeli military said it was targeting militants near the school and had warned civilians to evacuate. It said it was examining reports that uninvolved civilians were killed.

Over 64,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. It says that more than half of those killed are women and children.

President Trump claimed on social media Sunday that Israel has accepted his terms for a ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to do the same.

There was no immediate Israeli confirmation of his claim, nor response from Hamas. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting,” Trump wrote. “This is my last warning, there will not be another one!”

It wasn’t clear exactly what Trump’s proposal involved or how it could cut through the deadlock in negotiations between the two sides. Both Israel and Hamas have laid out road maps to end the war that appear irreconcilable.

Hamas wants an agreement that will enable it to retain its arsenal and some power in Gaza, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted on Hamas’ full disarmament as a condition for a comprehensive ceasefire.

Earlier Sunday, Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, said Hamas was ready to free the 48 hostages still held in Gaza in exchange for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners and its withdrawal of troops from the enclave.

He said Hamas was waiting for Israel to accept a 60-day ceasefire proposal crafted by Egyptian and Qatari mediators last month that would see the group release all remaining hostages in a swap alongside talks for a permanent end to the war.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing many families of the Israeli hostages in Gaza, welcomed Trump’s announcement Sunday and called on the Israeli government to “declare its unequivocal support for the emerging agreement and to provide President Trump with full backing until every hostage returns home.”

Netanyahu’s plan to take control of Gaza City has outraged families of hostages and their supporters, who fear the major ground offensive will further imperil the 20 hostages thought to still be alive in Gaza.

Aid workers warn that the invasion of Gaza City would exacerbate a humanitarian crisis for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering there.

Netanyahu vowed at his Cabinet meeting earlier Sunday to press ahead with the assault despite international and domestic criticism, saying that he’d prefer “a victory over our enemies” more than one “over the negative propaganda against us.”

Lidman and Magdy write for the Associated Press and reported from Tel Aviv and Cairo, respectively.