The Houthis, who govern northern Yemen and are affiliated with Iran, launched a surface-to-surface missile on Sunday that made its first landfall in central Israel. The missile struck an unpopulated area without inflicting any casualties.
Just before the missile struck at roughly 6:35 a.m. local time (0335 GMT), air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and throughout central Israel, sending locals fleeing for cover. The military said that the loud booms they heard were caused by missile interceptors.
“A surface-to-surface missile was seen entering central Israel from the east and landing in an open region, following the sirens that sounded in central Israel moments earlier. There were no reported injuries,” the military stated.
Nasruddin Amer, the deputy head of the Houthi media bureau, stated in a post on X on Sunday that a Yemeni missile had reached Israel after “20 missiles failed to intercept” it, describing it as the “beginning”.
The organization added in a Telegram post that information regarding a “qualitative operation that targeted the depth of the Zionist entity” would be provided shortly by a military spokesman.
Although it was not immediately able to tell if the fire was sparked by the missile or interceptor debris, Reuters saw smoke billowing in an open field in central Israel.
The Houthis appear to have used a missile for the first time to breach far into Israeli airspace with Sunday’s strike. Since the Gaza war broke out in October of last year, they have shot multiple times at Israel in what they refer to as a show of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The majority of these missiles have been shot down, yet in March one of them struck an open region close to Israel’s Red Sea port of Eilat.
When a Houthi drone arrived in Tel Aviv in July, it killed one person and injured four others. Following that assault—which was the first drone attack from outside to target Tel Aviv—Israel launched a significant airstrike on Houthi military sites close to Yemen’s Hodeidah port, resulting in the deaths of six and the injuries of eighty.
Additionally, the Israeli military reported that 40 rockets fired from Lebanon on Sunday at Israel were either intercepted or fell into open spaces.
“No injuries were reported,” the military declared.
(Reuters)
