Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would inflict a “heavy price” on the Iran-aligned Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they struck central Israel with a missile early on Sunday morning for the first time. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the group struck with a new hypersonic ballistic missile that travelled 2,040 km in just 11 1/2 minutes.
Air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel moments before the impact early in the morning, sending residents running for shelter. Loud booms were heard.
An Israeli military official said the missile was hit by an interceptor and fragmented in the air, rather than being completely destroyed.
Missile pieces landed in fields and near a railway station. There were no direct casualties, but nine people were lightly hurt while seeking cover. Reuters saw smoke billowing in an open field in central Israel.
At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the Houthis should have known that Israel would exact a “heavy price” for attacks on Israel.
“Whoever needs a reminder of that is invited to visit the Hodeida port,” Netanyahu said, referring to an Israeli retaliatory air strike against Yemen in July for a Houthi drone that hit Tel Aviv.
The Houthis have fired missiles and drones at Israel repeatedly in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians, since the Gaza war began with a Hamas attack on Israel in October.
The drone that hit Tel Aviv for the first time in July killed a man and wounded four people. Israeli air strikes in response on Houthi military targets near the port of Hodeidah killed six and wounded 80.
Previously, Houthi missiles have not penetrated deep into Israeli air space, with the only one reported to have hit Israeli territory falling in an open area near the Red Sea port of Eilat in March.
Israel should expect more strikes in the future “as we approach the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 operation, including responding to its aggression on the city of Hodeidah,” Houthis spokesperson Sarea said.
The deputy head of the Houthi media office, Nasruddin Amer, said that the missile had reached Israel after “20 missiles failed to intercept” it, describing the strike as the “beginning”.
Team Bharatshakti
(with inputs from Reuters)
