A missile strike claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted central Israel on Sunday, without causing any casualties according to the army, exacerbating regional tensions in the midst of the war in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that the Houthis will pay “a heavy price” for their “attempt to harm” Israel.
These rebels have already carried out several attacks against Israel, in “solidarity” with the Palestinians, since the start of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, triggered by Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
A ground-to-ground missile “fired from Yemen” “fell in an open area,” the Israeli army said, adding that “no injuries were reported,” the missile having “probably disintegrated.”
“The conclusion of the missile examination shows that the target was hit by an interceptor, which caused the target to fragment, but it was not destroyed,” an army official told AFP on Sunday evening.
For their part, the Houthis claimed that the attack was carried out “with a new hypersonic ballistic missile” that reached its target, a military position in Jaffa, in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. According to their leader, Abdel Malek al-Houthi, the missile “pierced” the Israeli defenses.
“The Israeli enemy should expect further strikes,” they warned.
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas welcomed the attack and said Israel “will not be safe until it stops its brutal aggression.”
Israeli police reported the fall of a “fragment of an interception missile” in the Shephelah region (center), without causing any injuries.
Sirens sounded in central Israel and many people rushed to shelters in the Tel Aviv area, according to Israeli media.
The falling debris from the missile caused a fire near the city of Lod (central), according to an AFP photographer.
– “Change the balance” –
Last July, the Houthis carried out a drone attack on Tel Aviv that killed one civilian.
In retaliation, Israel bombed the Yemeni port of Hodeida, controlled by the Houthis.
Houthi rebels have also been targeting ships they believe to be linked to Israel, the United States or the United Kingdom in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea for months, disrupting traffic in this strategic maritime zone for global trade.
Also claiming to act in solidarity with the Palestinians, Lebanese Hezbollah has opened a front on the border with Israel, exchanging fire almost daily since October.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border.
“We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that our residents return home safely,” Netanyahu said Sunday. “The status quo cannot continue. We must change the balance of power on our northern border.”
On Sunday, the Israeli army dropped leaflets on a Lebanese region near the border, asking residents to evacuate, according to the Lebanese news agency ANI.
The army, however, assured that it was an “initiative” of a brigade not “approved by the command.”
– “High” capacity –
In the Gaza Strip, Israel is continuing its offensive, including new airstrikes. At least 35 people were killed this weekend across the besieged Palestinian territory, according to reports from the Hamas government’s Health Ministry, Civil Defense, the Red Crescent and medical sources.
The Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which also includes hostages killed in captivity.
Of the 251 people abducted in the attack, 97 are still being held in the Gaza Strip, 33 of whom have been declared dead by the Israeli army.
The latter announced on Sunday that three hostages who died in Gaza in November were “probably” killed by an Israeli strike while they were “in an underground complex” from where the “commander of the northern brigade of Hamas, Ahmed Ghandour”, himself killed in this strike, was operating.
In response to the Hamas attack, Israel vowed to destroy the movement that has been in power in Gaza since 2007 and is classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States.
Its retaliatory military campaign has left at least 41,206 dead in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry in Gaza, which did not specify the proportion of fighters and civilians killed.
The war caused a humanitarian disaster and the displacement of almost the entire 2.4 million population.
Despite the losses suffered, “the martyrs and the sacrifices”, Hamas’s capacity to fight Israel remains “high”, Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official, told AFP on Sunday.
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