Houthi missile strikes Israel
A YEMENI rebel missile triggered a rush to shelters in central Israel yesterday, a rare incident that caused no casualties but again added to regional tensions nearly a year into the Gaza war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the rebels will pay a “heavy price”.
Firefighters put out a brush fire near Lod and broken glass at a train station in Modin, about 20km southeast of Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub, after the attack.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed the strike. They are among Iran-backed groups in the Middle East that have been drawn into the conflict after war began in October between Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants in Gaza.
“The Houthis launched a surface-to-surface missile from Yemen into our territory. We charge a heavy price for any attempt to harm us,” Netanyahu said.
Hamas praised the attack, vowing that Israel “will not enjoy security unless it ceases its brutal aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip”.
The rebels had targeted an Israeli “military position” in the Jaffa area, around Tel Aviv, using a “ballistic missile that succeeded in reaching its target”, their spokesman Yahya Saree said in a video statement. “The enemy’s defences failed to intercept it,” he said.
In July, the Houthis claimed a drone strike that penetrated Israel’s intricate air defences and killed a civilian in Tel Aviv, at least 1800km from Yemen.
Yesterday, Israel’s military said the latest missile “fell in an open area” in the country’s centre. A subsequent statement said an initial inquiry indicates the missile fired from Yemen probably fragmented in mid-air.
“Several interception attempts were made by the Arrow and Iron Dome Aerial Defence Systems, and their results are under review,” a military statement said.
Sirens sounded, the military said, leading to what local media described as a scramble for shelter in the greater Tel Aviv area. A paramedic service said several people were slightly injured while “on their way to shelters”.
Israeli police said they were at the scene near Shfela, east of Tel Aviv, where a fragment of an air-defence interceptor had come down.
Yemen’s Houthis are targeting Israel and its perceived interests in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Since November, the Houthis have carried out dozens of missile and drone strikes, sometimes deadly, on shipping in the vital Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea waterways.
Houthi missiles last month hit a Greek-flagged tanker carrying more than a million barrels of crude, leaving it ablaze off the coast of the Yemeni port of Hodeida and threatening environmental disaster.
A Greek defence ministry source on Saturday said that the Sounion was being towed northward under military escort in a salvage operation. After the Houthis’ July attack on Tel Aviv, Israeli warplanes bombed Houthi-controlled Hodeida, destroying much of its fuel storage capacity and killing several people, according to the rebels.
It was Israel’s first claimed strike in Yemen, and yesterday Netanyahu said it should serve as “a reminder” of the price to be paid. On Israel’s northern flank, Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement has traded regular cross-border fire with Israeli forces in exchanges that threaten to spiral into all-out war.
Yesterday about 40 projectiles were fired from Lebanon towards Israel’s Upper Galilee region and the annexed Golan Heights, Israel’s military said.
Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said on Saturday his group has “no intention of going to war” but if Israel does “unleash” one “there will be large losses on both sides” and “hundreds of thousands more displaced”.
Yesterday Netanyahu said “the status quo will not continue” and “a change in the balance of power on our northern border” is needed. Hundreds of people, mostly fighters, have already died in Lebanon and dozens, both soldiers and civilians, on the Israeli side.
The October 7 Hamas attack on Israel which began Gaza’s war resulted in the deaths of 1205 people, mostly civilians. Militants seized 251 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed 41206 people in Gaza.
Gaza’s civil defence agency yesterday said Israeli air strikes killed at least three people in central Gaza and another around Gaza City.
Months of efforts by Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators have failed to secure a truce and hostage release deal. Netanyahu’s government is facing anger from critics who accuse him of not doing enough to get the captives home. On Saturday thousands again took to the streets of Israel’s main cities to push the government for a deal.