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Yemeni rebels target central Israel with missile
A missile strike claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted central Israel on Sunday, where the projectile fell in an uninhabited area without causing any casualties, according to the Israeli army. The Houthi rebels have already launched several attacks against Israel, claiming to act in solidarity with the Palestinians, since the start of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip triggered by Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. “A ground-to-ground missile was identified crossing central Israel from the east and then fell in an open area,” the Israeli army said, adding that “no injuries were reported.” It said the “missile was fired from Yemen” and that the explosions heard came from its missile interception system. In a video, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the attack, carried out “with a new hypersonic ballistic missile,” targeted a military position in Jaffa, in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. He said the projectile had hit its target, “without the enemy’s defense systems intercepting it.” The 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 before the missile arrived. Many people then rushed to shelters in the Tel Aviv region, according to Israeli media. Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, said nine people had been lightly injured as they headed to shelters. Rescuers were extinguishing a fire near the city of Lod (center) in the morning, caused by falling debris from the missile, according to an AFP photographer. – “Inevitable” – Last July, the Houthis carried out a drone attack on Tel Aviv that killed a civilian. In retaliation, the Israeli army bombed the Yemeni port of Hodeida, controlled by the Houthis, on July 20, and the leader of the Yemeni rebels had considered a response to this attack “inevitable”. The 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. These attacks disrupt traffic in this maritime zone essential for global trade, which has prompted the United States to set up an international maritime coalition and to strike rebel targets in Yemen, sometimes with the help of the United Kingdom. The Houthis are part of what Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy, calls the “axis of resistance”, which includes other allies of Hamas such as Iraqi groups or the powerful Lebanese Hezbollah. Claiming, like the Houthis, to act in solidarity with the Palestinians, the Lebanese Islamist movement has opened a front on the border with Israel, exchanging fire almost daily since October 7. – New strikes – Meanwhile, the Israeli army continues its offensive in the Gaza Strip, where several nighttime airstrikes and artillery fire have been reported, according to AFP journalists and the Gaza Civil Defense. At least three people were killed and several others wounded in a strike on a house in the Nusseirat refugee camp (center), according to the Civil Defense. Further north, in the Jabalia refugee camp, one person was killed and three others wounded in a strike on a house, according to the same source. The Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures, which also includes hostages killed in captivity. Of the 251 people kidnapped in this attack, 97 are still being held in the Gaza Strip, 33 of whom have been declared dead by the Israeli army. The Israeli military campaign of reprisals on the Gaza Strip has left at least 41,206 dead, according to the Health Ministry of the Hamas government in Gaza, which does not specify the proportion of fighters and civilians killed. The war has caused a humanitarian disaster and the displacement of almost all of the 2.4 million inhabitants. The mediating countries — the United States, Qatar and Egypt — are trying to negotiate a ceasefire and a hostage and prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas, but the talks remain deadlocked. bur-smw/mca/cco/vl/ila
