Israeli forces intercepted a surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on social media Sunday.
The missile did not cross into Israeli territory, but “warnings of rocket and missile fire” were issued out of concern that shrapnel could fall on residents, the IDF said. The missile approached Israel from the Red Sea, it said.
Although it was not immediately clear who launched the missile, a Houthi military spokesman had promised retaliation for Israel’s airstrikes Saturday on Hodeida, a port city in Yemen controlled by the rebel group. Spokesman Yahya Saree said the Israeli raids struck the port, a power station and a fuel tank.
On Sunday, Saree said his group launched “a number of missiles” against targets in the southern Israeli port city of Eilat. It was not immediately clear whether the two reported attacks were one and the same. Earlier Sunday, the IDF said air defense sirens were sounding in the area of Eilat.
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The Israeli strikes on Saturday were a response to a rare drone attack on Tel Aviv on Friday for which the Houthis claimed responsibility. The attack killed one person and struck just yards from a U.S. Embassy branch office.
An IDF official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss military operations, told reporters Sunday that the airstrikes in Yemen were conducted using a dozen airplanes — including fighter jets and tankers. The “long range” strikes hit targets about 1,050 miles (1,700 kilometers) from Israel, the official said.
The Israeli attack on the Hodeida port, a critical hub for imports to the impoverished country, sparked massive fires. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the port was being “used as an entry point for deadly weapons supplied to the Houthis by Iran.”
Netanyahu said the Israeli response to the drone attack made “it clear to our enemies that there is no place that the long arm of the State of Israel will not reach.”
After the war in Gaza began in October, the Houthis started attacking ships near the Yemeni coast in an effort to build pressure on Israel to end its military operations in the Strip. A U.S.-led naval task force has been responding to the assaults but has been unable to halt them entirely.
Here’s what else to know
- Netanyahu is scheduled to travel to Washington this week to address a joint meeting of Congress. The Israeli leader had been due to meet with President Biden, who announced Sunday he was ending his reelection bid. Biden said he would continue with his presidential duties for the rest of his term, though it was not immediately clear whether Tuesday’s meeting between the leaders would still take place.
- Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry said Israel’s attack on Yemen “aggravates the current tension in the region” and called on both sides to “exercise maximum restraint.” Riyadh, which fought its own multiyear war against the Houthis, said Sunday that it was following the latest military developments in Yemen with “great concern.”
- Israeli troops are continuing operations inside Gaza, the IDF said. In the Rafah area, Israeli forces discovered “ready-to-fire mortar shells,” while an Israeli aircraft identified an opposition group of militants that was then “eliminated” by IDF troops, it added. Troops also located and dismantled tunnel shafts and underground infrastructure in the area of Tal al-Sultan, the IDF said. In the central Gaza Strip, IDF troops located “various types of weaponry,” it said.
- At least 38,983 people have been killed and 89,727 injured in Gaza since the war started, said the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and it says 326 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operations in Gaza.
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