The Knesset Economic Affairs Committee on Sunday gave its approval, following a first reading in the plenum several weeks ago, to a plan to build another international airport in the south of the country, despite objections from within the security establishment.

According to the plan, which will now return to the plenum for its second and third readings, the airport would be built in the town of Nevatim, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) — less than an hour’s drive — from the Gaza border and adjacent to a military airbase in the Negev desert that is home to F-35I fighter jets.

The airbase was targeted by Iranian missiles last October. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen also claimed to have targeted the airbase last week, when they fired a missile that was intercepted by air defenses before reaching Israeli........

© The Times of Israel