Houthis say they targeted airport as Netanyahu’s plane arrived; missile shot down by Arrow system ‘outside Israel’s borders’; caused no injuries, but a piece crashed near Jerusalem
A surface-to-surface ballistic missile launched at central Israel from Yemen Saturday evening was shot down by air defenses “outside the country’s borders,” the IDF said in a statement.
The missile caused sirens to sound in central Israel due to fears of falling shrapnel. Its remains fell near the Jerusalem-area community of Tzur Hadassah, causing slight damage, police said.
The missile was shot down with the Arrow long-range missile defense system, which is designed to take out ballistic missiles while they are still outside the atmosphere.
The missile was fired shortly after the Iran-backed Houthis vowed that “the resistance won’t be broken,” in response to the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an IDF airstrike in Beirut on Friday.
The leader of the Houthis said the missile was aimed and timed to coincide with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s landing in Israel after returning from New York. In a televised speech, Abdul Malik al-Houthi also vowed that the death of Nasrallah “will not be in vain.”
The prime minister’s plane, known as Wing of Zion, had landed in Israel some 35 minutes before the sirens sounded.
The Houthis also took responsibility for an attack Friday morning, saying they had launched a ballistic missile at a military target in Tel Aviv and a drone at a “vital target” in Ashkelon. The missile was intercepted. The IDF said it was unaware of any drone reaching Israel.
Friday’s missile caused no direct injuries, though a 17-year-old girl was moderately hurt when a car hastily pulling over during the siren accidentally hit her.
The Houthis hinted on Friday that the morning’s missile was retaliation for an Israeli airstrike Thursday that killed senior Hezbollah leader Mohammed Srur.
The Yemeni rebels have launched several attacks targeting Tel Aviv, including a surface-to-surface missile earlier this month.
Israel has yet to retaliate for any of those attacks.
In July, the military conducted a major strike on Yemen’s Hodeidah port after a drone hit Tel Aviv, killing a man in his apartment.
The Jewish state has killed the vast majority of Hezbollah’s top leadership in the past few weeks.
Yemen’s Houthis have fired over 220 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones at Israel over the past 11 months — mostly toward the southernmost city of Eilat — saying, similarly to Hezbollah, that the attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been battling Hamas since the Palestinian terror group’s October 7 attack.
As reported by The Times of Israel