A missile fired from Yemen entered central Israel on Sunday, causing no casualties but rekindling regional tensions nearly a year after the Gaza war, the Israeli military said.
After the incident, AFP photographers saw firefighters extinguishing bushfires near Lod and seen broken glass at a train station in Modiin, both areas southeast of Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack, but they are among Iran-backed groups in the Middle East that have become involved in the conflict since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas Palestinian militants against Israel led to a war in the Gaza Strip.
In July, the Houthis claimed responsibility for a drone strike that penetrated Israeli air defences and killed a civilian in Tel Aviv, at least 1,800 kilometres (1,200 miles) from Yemen.
In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli military said “a surface-to-surface missile was identified that entered central Israel from the east and fell in an open area. There were no reports of casualties.”
It later said, “The missile was fired from Yemen.”
The military said “explosions heard in the last few minutes” were from air defence interceptors and that the results of the interception were being reviewed.
Yemen’s Houthis have been carrying out attacks against Israel and its alleged interests, saying they are showing solidarity with Palestinians during the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The insurgents are part of the “Axis of Resistance,” which also includes Tehran-allied militant groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Deadly shipping attacks
Since November, the Houthis have carried out dozens of missile and drone attacks on shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, waterways vital for global trade.
Several Filipino sailors have been killed in the attacks, prompting US military retaliation against Houthi positions.
Last month, Houthi missiles hit a Greek-flagged tanker carrying more than one million barrels of crude oil, setting it on fire off the coast of Yemen’s Hodeida port and threatening an environmental disaster.
A Greek defence ministry source told AFP on Saturday that rescue operations were underway and the Sounion ship was being towed north under military protection.
Following a deadly Houthis attack on Tel Aviv in July, Israeli warplanes responded by bombing Houthi-controlled Hodeida, destroying much of the country’s fuel storage capacity and killing scores of people, according to rebels.
This was the first attack by Israel in Yemen.
A rebel official at the time vowed to “respond to an escalating situation with an escalating situation”. A statement by the Houthis last month “confirmed once again that Yemen’s response is definitely coming”.
On Israel’s northern edge, Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement is engaged in regular cross-border firefights with the Israeli military, raising the risk of a full-blown war.
About 40 missiles were fired from Lebanon towards Israel’s Upper Galilee region and the Golan Heights on Sunday morning, the Israeli military said.
Due to this hostile situation, thousands of people from both countries have been displaced from their homes near the border.
Opposition to Israelis
Hezbollah’s second-in-command, Naim Qassem, warned in a speech on Saturday that “if Israel launches a war, we will face it in the face – and both sides will suffer heavy losses.”
“If they think that this kind of war will allow 100,000 displaced people to return home … we issue this warning: be prepared to deal with millions more displaced.”
Cross-border violence has killed 623 people in Lebanon since the beginning of October, mostly fighters but also at least 142 civilians, according to an AFP count.
On the Israeli side, including the Golan Heights, officials have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.
Hezbollah has said it is acting in support of its ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas attack that triggered the war in Gaza killed 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures.
The militants took 251 hostages during the assault, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, 33 of whom the Israeli military says are dead.
At least 41,182 people have been killed in Gaza in Israel’s retaliatory military campaign, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, though the ministry did not give a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
On Saturday, thousands of people once again took to the streets of major Israeli cities to increase pressure on the government to release the hostages.
Months of efforts by mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to broker a ceasefire and the release of the hostages. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government faces growing anger from critics who accuse him of not doing enough to bring the hostages back home.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
