Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Iranian-backed Houthis would pay a "heavy price" for hitting central Israel with an advanced missile. It is the deepest the military group has penetrated inside Israel, Reuters reported. Israel previously struck Houthi positions in July.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said they had used a new hypersonic ballistic missile that traveled 2,040 km (1270 miles) in just under 12 minutes. An Israeli military official claimed that the missile had been intercepted but had only been broken in-flight and not destroyed. As air raid sirens wailed, the missile hit land at 6:35 a.m. Israeli time.
Missile fragments could be found in local farms and by a railway station. No one was seriously injured in the explosion, although nine people sustained very minor injuries. Retuters reported seeing smoke arising from “an open field.”
At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the Houthis must have assumed that Israel would retaliate and force the Houthis into paying a “heavy price” for their attack on Israel. A Ukrainian cargo ship destroyed a Houthi drone over the Red Sea.
"Whoever needs a reminder of that is invited to visit the Hodeida port," Netanyahu said, in reference to Israel’s airstrike that killed six and injured 80 in July after a Houthi drone reached as far as Tel Aviv and killed one man. The Houthis continue to fire missiles at Israel because they say they are fighting for the Palestinians who have been killed in the Gaza war that began with a Hamas attack on Israel almost a year ago.
Houthi spokesperson Yahya Sarea said that Israel should not think this last missile strike was a one shot effort but that more drones and missiles will be coming "as we approach the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 operation, including responding to its aggression on the city of Hodeidah.”
The deputy head of the Houthis’ media office, Nasruddin Amer, said in a post on X on Sunday that the missile hit its target in Israel after "20 missiles failed to intercept" it, saying it is only the "beginning.”
