Israel’s Arrow missile defence system intercepted a surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen on Sunday. The army said the missile did not cross into Israeli territory, and that sirens were activated in the Red Sea resort of Eilat as a precaution in case of falling debris from the interception.
A Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said several ballistic missiles were launched towards Eilat, and that a US ship in the Red Sea was also attacked. Threatening a “huge response with no red lines” he vowed the Houthis would continue attacking Israel as long as the “aggression” toward the Palestinian people continued.
Yemen confirmed on Sunday that six people were killed and 80 others injured in Israel’s strikes on Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodeida on Saturday. That attack in turn was a response to the killing of a Tel Aviv resident in a Houthi drone strike in the early hours of Friday morning.
[ Israel-Gaza war: Israeli jets bomb Houthi targets in Yemen, military saysOpens in new window ]
“The fire that is now burning in Hodeida can be seen across the entire Middle East, and that has clear implications,” said Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant. “The Houthis attacked us more than 200 times. The first time they hurt an Israeli citizen, we hit them and we will do that in every place that doing so is necessary.”
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The strike, more than 1,700km from Israel, was one of the longest-distance attacks in Israel’s history. It will have sent a clear message to Iran, which arms and finances the Houthis, that Israel also has the capability to reach Tehran (a shorter distance) and that country’s nuclear facilities.
United Nations secretary general António Guterres said he was “deeply concerned” about the strikes and the risk of further escalation in the region.
[ Missile fired by Houthis intercepted as port city of Eilat targeted, says IsraelOpens in new window ]
In central Gaza, the Israeli army attacked a residential building in Nuseirat on Sunday, according to local reports. Before the strike, residents of the area received evacuation notices.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, almost 39,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began on October 7th. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 253 hostages seized in the surprise Hamas attack on that day. Some 116 hostages remain in Gaza and Israel has confirmed the deaths of 42 of them.
The Israeli army has decided to vaccinate against polio all soldiers operating in Gaza or due to enter there soon, after a high concentration of the virus was found in sewage in Gaza. Vaccination of the troops will take place over the coming weeks, although the army says that, according to its information, there are no active cases of polio among Gazans.
Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu flies to the United States on Monday morning, in advance of an address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. He was also expected to meetUS president Joe Biden on Tuesday, with the US eager to clinch an agreement on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal. Mr Biden also wants to hear details on how Israel views a postwar arrangement in Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu filed on Sunday a draft decision rejecting the advisory opinion published by the International Court of Justice at The Hague on Friday. It stated that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories was illegal. “The people of Israel are not occupiers in their own land and in their eternal capital, Jerusalem!” the Israeli response said.
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