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.

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

The head of the World Health Organization said he was about to board a flight in the Yemeni capital when the airport came under bombardment.

Dr Tedros told the BBC his team 'escaped death narrowly'

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.

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.

Several people were killed on Thursday and dozens wounded in Israeli airstrikes on the main civilian airport in the Houthi rebel-held capital of Yemen.

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.

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

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.

Houthi rebels in Yemen say Israeli airstrikes targeted the rebel-held capital of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeida.