Houthis in Yemen fire missiles at Central and Southern Israel on Tuesday evening.
By Rachel Avraham
At 7:51pm, the red alert sirens were activated in Gan Yavne, Yad Binyamin, Re’em Industrial Park, Abu Ghosh, Airport City, Bat Yam, Beitar Illit, Hevron, Kfar Etzion, Kiryat Arba, Latrun, Lod, Mini Israel, Modiin, Ramat Gan, Ramla, Rishon LeTzion, Tel Aviv and a variety of other places across Central and Southern Israel.
The IDF on Tuesday said that a Houthi missile launched from Yemen towards Israeli territory was “most likely intercepted,” the military said. According to the Jerusalem Post, they noted that additional interceptors were launched due to the possibility of fallen shrapnel from the interception.
The Houthis claim they targeted Ben Gurion Airport with two ballistic missiles, one “Palestine 2” type and the other “Zulfiqar”. There were no reports of direct impact in the attack. The Israeli police said shrapnel was located in the greater Jerusalem area and Judea and Samaria.
Arutz Sheva reported that a building was lightly damaged in Beitar Ilit when its roof was struck by falling debris. Debris also fell in the yard of a home in Zekharia and on two streets. Israel’s emergency service, Magen David Adom (MDA), said that following the sirens, they had received no reports of casualties, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Arutz Sheva reported that the missile was intercepted. “Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was most likely intercepted. Additional interceptors were launched due to the possibility of falling shrapnel from the interception. Sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol,” the military stated.
Earlier on Tuesday morning, the IDF confirmed that, for the first time during the war, the navy attacked the Houthis at their Hodeidah maritime port, the Jerusalem Post reported. Despite these prior attacks, the Houthis have managed to continue to use aspects of the Hodeidah port for terror purposes to advance attacks on Israel using ballistic missiles and drones, the Jerusalem Post noted.
According to the IDF, the operation aimed to further degrade the military use of the port, which Israel has previously struck over the past year and which continues to serve as a hub for terrorist activities, Arutz Sheva reported.
“The port serves as a transfer point for weapons and exemplifies the cynical exploitation of civilian infrastructure by the Houthi terror regime to advance terrorist operations,” the IDF stated, Arutz Sheva noted.
“We warned the Houthi terrorist organization that if they continue to fire at Israel, they will receive a powerful response and enter a naval and air blockade. That’s what we did today – and we will continue to do so in the future,” Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said.
