The red alert sirens were activated in Haifa, Acre, Nahariya, Yarka and other areas in the Western Galilee region.
By Rachel Avraham
At 4:00am on Wednesday morning, the Houthis fired missiles towards Northern Israel. The red alert sirens were activated in Haifa, Acre, Nahariya, Yarka and other areas in the Western Galilee region. “An interceptor was launched toward the missile, and the missile was most likely successfully intercepted. Sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol,” the military told JNS.
Explosions from the interceptions were heard in Haifa and the Sharon region, the Times of Israel reported. Magen David Adom confirmed there were no reports of casualties or damage. However, several individuals were treated for minor injuries sustained while running to shelter, JNS reported.
The Houthis later claimed to have fired the missile at a “vital Zionist enemy target” in Haifa, the Times of Israel reported. According to the report, they also claimed to have launched a drone at a target in the Tel Aviv area, although there were no reports of drones reaching Israel from Yemen overnight.
The last time a missile was fired at Israel from Yemen was last Friday, when the missile fire was directed at central Israel and the Jerusalem area, Yedioth Achronot reported. According to the report, Houthi attacks have mostly targeted those regions and not Northern Israel. This was in fact the first time that the Houthis reached the Northern Israeli port city of Haifa, the third largest city in the Jewish state.
The military recently deployed a new system to alert civilians of long-range missile attacks via a push notification on their phones, 3-5 minutes before sirens sound, the Times of Israel reported. According to the report, it was used in the early-morning attack, though the early alert was received very shortly before the sirens sounded, around 2 minutes before the missile launch instead of 3-5 minutes.
The IDF acknowledged that there were delays in issuing the early warning, saying that there were no issues with detecting the missile, but a “malfunction occurred in the transmitting of information” from the Israeli Air Force to the Home Front Command, the Times of Israel reported.
Since March 18, when the IDF resumed its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen have launched more than 20 ballistic missiles and several drones at Israel, the Times of Israel reported. According to the report, only half of the missiles set off sirens in the country and were shot down, while the others fell short.
Wednesday’s attack was the first time that sirens sounded in the Haifa region since a ceasefire with the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah took effect in November, ending more than a year of fighting, which began a day after fellow Iran-backed terror group Hamas stormed southern Israel to massacre 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.
According to the report, the Houthis — whose slogan is “Death to America, Death to Israel, a Curse on the Jews” — began attacking Israel and maritime traffic in November 2023, a month after the October 7 massacre.
Photo from Ansar Allah: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houthis#/media/File:Ansar_Allah_fighters.jpg
