A drone launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels has hit an airport in southern Israel, in a significant failure of Israel's air defence systems.
Vision broadcast on Israeli television and shared on social media shows black smoke billowing from an area within the Ramon International Airport near Eilat in the far south of the country, at the top of the Gulf of Aqaba.
Israel said the Houthis launched multiple drones, some of which were intercepted outside of Israel.
Israel's paramedic service, Magen David Adom, said either people needed medical treatment after the attack and were being taken to the Yoseftal Hospital.
Those people included a 63-year-old man treated for shrapnel injuries, a 52-year-old woman treated after falling, two men aged 63 and 28 and a 24-year-old woman who suffered blast injuries to their ears and three others suffering anxiety.
The country's airport authority said airspace in southern Israel was closed after the drone attack hit the airport's passenger hall.
The authority also confirmed take-offs and landings at the airport were halted, while it was working to restore normal operations as soon as possible.
After about an hour, the authority announced that operations at the airport were resuming and flights were due to resume.
The airport located on the border with Jordan and Egypt mostly handles domestic flights.
It was the fourth drone launched at Israel by the Houthis in the space of an hour, with three others intercepted by the Israeli military.
Two were intercepted by the air force before entering Israeli airspace, while a third was shot down shortly after crossing the border.
Warning sirens for the fourth did not ring out ahead of the incident, which the Israeli military says it is investigating.
It later said an initial inquiry by the air force suggested its systems detected an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) but that it was not classified as hostile "and accordingly, the interception and alert systems were not activated".
"There is no indication of a technical malfunction in the existing detection systems," it added.
Nasruddin Amer, deputy head of the Houthi media office, hailed the attack on social media, calling it "a unique, qualitative military operation."
"Enemy airports are unsafe, and foreigners must leave them for their own safety," he said.
"Other sensitive targets are under fire."
The Houthis have repeatedly launched drones and missiles at Israel, and attacked ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with Hamas and the people of Gaza.
The group has insisted recent Israeli strikes on Yemen, which have killed senior members of the Houthis administration, would not deter them from continuing to attack Israel.
Sunday's attack came two weeks after an Israeli strike on Sanaa, the rebel-held capital of Yemen, killed the prime minister of the Houthi government, along with many of his cabinet.
Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi was the mosh senior Houthi official killed in the Israeli-US campaign against the Iranian-backed rebels.
In May, a Houthi missile slipped through Israel's sophisticated air defence systems and hit an area within the Ben Gurion Airport compound outside Tel Aviv.
Late last week, Israel's Minister of Defense Israel Katz threatened to unleash biblical plagues on the Houthis in response to three missiles being fired at the country in 24 hours.
"The Houthis are firing missiles at Israel again," he posted on social media platform X.
"A plague of darkness, a plague of the firstborn — we will complete all ten plagues."
ABC/wires
