Sanaa: Yemen’s Houthis on Saturday claimed responsibility for a missile attack that reportedly triggered sirens across southern Israel, earlier in the day.
“We targeted the Israeli enemy’s Nevatim Air Base in the Negev region using a hypersonic ballistic missile,” which had “successfully reached the target,” Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a televised statement aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.
Sarea said the operation came in response to “the ongoing Israeli offensive on Gaza,” vowing to launch more attacks until the Israeli aggression on the Palestinian enclave stops and the blockade on it is lifted.
Earlier in the day, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.
There were no reports of casualties, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service.
Under a new procedure that took effect recently, the IDF’s Home Front Command issued an early warning on its app to large areas in southern and central Israel, including the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, as well as the occupied Jerusalem.
However, three minutes later, sirens were only activated in the north of the Negev desert, southern Israel, prompting hundreds of thousands to seek shelter.
According to the IDF, the missile was brought down before entering Israeli territory.
Later in the morning, the IDF reported in another statement that it had intercepted a drone launched from the east, before it entered Israeli territory, without sirens activated, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Houthi group, which controls much of northern Yemen, has been targeting Israeli targets since November 2023 to show solidarity with Palestinians amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Earlier on April 25, the Houthi group claimed that US warplanes have conducted 1200 raids on Yemen since mid-March, resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties and widespread destruction of infrastructure.
In a press statement, the foreign affairs authority of the group alleged that the US operations destroyed “numerous civilian facilities, including residential neighbourhoods, ports, health facilities, water tanks, and archaeological sites, in flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law.”
(IANS)
