Middle East

Missile fired by Houthis intercepted as port city of Eilat targeted, says Israel

Houthis pledge ‘huge’ response to Israel’s deadly strike on Yemeni city of Hodeidah

Mourners lay wreaths over the grave of Yevgeny Ferder, who was killed by a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv. Photograph: EPA
Mourners lay wreaths over the grave of Yevgeny Ferder, who was killed by a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv. Photograph: EPA
Yohannes Lowe
Sun Jul 21 2024 - 13:49

Israeli air defences intercepted a surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen on Sunday, the military said.

The military’s Arrow 3 missile defence system shot down the projectile before it crossed into Israeli territory, it said.

Air raid sirens sounded earlier on Sunday in the Red Sea port city of Eilat in southern Israel, sending residents running for shelter. The Houthis said they targeted Eilat with multiple ballistic missiles.

Yemen’s Houthis have pledged a “huge” response to Israel’s deadly strike on the Yemeni city of Hodeidah.

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Powerful air strikes rocked the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah on Saturday, a day after Israeli officials vowed revenge for a drone that struck Tel Aviv, killing one person and injuring at least 10.

Air strikes hit a refinery and electricity infrastructure, sparking a huge blaze that firefighters are reportedly still battling. Six people were killed and about 80 others injured in the attack in Yemen, according to Reuters.

A Houthi military spokesperson said the Iran-backed rebel group’s “response to the Israeli aggression against our country is inevitably coming and will be huge”.

The Houthis, an armed movement that has taken control of most of Yemen over the past decade, have been attacking shipping lanes at the mouth of the Red Sea, where 15 per cent of the world’s seaborne trade passes on routes between Europe and Asia.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry has called for all parties to exercise “maximum restraint” in the region after Israel carried out air strikes on the Houthi-controlled Red Sea port of Hodeidah in Yemen that reportedly killed six people and injured over 80 others.

Elsewhere, the Israeli military has confirmed it struck Hizbullah weapons storage facilities overnight.

The Israeli air force “struck two Hizbullah weapons storage facilities in southern Lebanon, containing rockets and additional weaponry”, the military said in a statement.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said on Saturday evening “the Israeli enemy launched a raid” on the town of Adloun, about 30km (19 miles) from the border with Israel, later saying the target was “an ammunition depot”.

Footage released by the Israeli army shows strikes on what they say are Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in southern Lebanon.

Rockets were still exploding about an hour after the strike was first reported, the NNA said, adding that the blasts “lightly injured three citizens”.

Earlier on Saturday, Hizbullah said it had launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” on northern Israel “in response” to a strike blamed on Israel that injured civilians.

In central Gaza, seven civilians, including women and children, were killed and others injured on Saturday night as Israeli forces targeted a home with missiles in the Bureij refugee camp, Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reported.

Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, will fly to the United States on Monday morning and meet the US president, Joe Biden, on Tuesday.

The meeting between the two leaders comes as Mr Biden, who has been recovering from Covid-19 in self-isolation at his home in Delaware, is being urged by many Democrats to drop out of the presidential race. – Guardian