Israel’s military intercepted a missile early on Christmas Day that was launched from Yemen and crossed into Israeli territory, said the army.
Sirens were activated due to the possibility of falling shrapnel from the interception, added the army in a statement.
Magen David Adom ambulance service said that it had received reports of approximately nine people injured on their way to the protected area.
“For the 5th time in a week, millions of Israelis were sent to shelter as Houthi terrorists in Yemen launched a missile attack,” the Israeli military said in a post on X.
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The Iran-backed Houthi group has repeatedly fired drones and missiles towards Israel in what it has described as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Syria’s newly appointed foreign minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani told Iran on Tuesday not to spread chaos in the country but to respect the Syrian people’s will and the country’s sovereignty.
In a post on X, Shibani said: “Iran must respect the will of the Syrian people and the country’s sovereignty and security. We warn them from spreading chaos in Syria and we hold them accountable for the repercussions of the latest remarks.”
He did not specify the remarks to which he was referring.
In a televised speech on Sunday, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Syrian youth to “stand with firm determination against those who have orchestrated and brought about this insecurity ... We predict that a strong and honourable group will also emerge in Syria because today Syrian youth have nothing to lose. Their schools, universities, homes, and streets are unsafe.”
He added: “Therefore, they must stand firmly with determination against the planners and executors of insecurity and prevail over them.”
Syrian rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad on December 8th after a 13-year civil war.
Iran spent billions of dollars propping up Assad during the war and deployed its Revolutionary Guards to Syria to keep its ally in power.
Assad’s overthrow is widely seen as a significant blow to the Iran-led “Axis of Resistance” political and military alliance that opposes Israeli and US influence in the Middle East.
In Gaza, Israel has been accused of failing to crack down on armed gangs attacking food convoys in the war-torn Palestinian enclave, despite a pledge to do so in mid-October to help ward off, according to UN and US officials familiar with the matter. The commitment, made behind closed doors, seemed like a breakthrough because, since the beginning of the war in October 2023, the international community has struggled to enlist Israel’s support to improve the dire humanitarian situation in the war-ravaged territory, said three senior officials.
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson declined to comment on what was agreed in October and what has been done to curb looting. “Israel has taken significant steps to allow the maximum possible scope of aid to Gaza,” said the spokesperson.
Now, UN and US officials say gang violence has spiralled out of control, crippling supply lines upon which most of Gaza’s 2.1 million civilians rely for survival.
In October, $9.5 million (€9 million) worth of food and other goods — nearly 25 per cent of all the humanitarian aid sent to Gaza that month — was lost because of attacks and looting, according to a previously unreported tally of incidents compiled by UN relief agencies with charity organisations.
The assessment of looting in November is still under way, but preliminary data show that it was far worse, according to two sources familiar with the problem. In the middle of the month, a 109-truck convoy chartered by UN agencies came under attack minutes after it was ordered by the IDF to leave a border crossing in southern Gaza during the night, several hours in advance of the agreed schedule, according to people familiar with the incident, including two who were present.
Stationed nearby, the IDF did not intervene, said the same people. The IDF spokesperson declined to comment on the incident.
Georgios Petropoulos, a co-ordinator at the UN’s emergency-response arm, OCHA, said that aid agencies were unable to resolve the problem of lawlessness there by themselves.
“It’s just gotten too big for humanitarians to solve,” he said upon returning from Gaza on Thursday.
The US Department of State declined to comment on Israel’s October commitment but said that looting remained the primary obstacle to aid delivery.
“We continue to press Israel on the need for bolstered security to ensure convoys with critical humanitarian assistance reach Palestinian civilians throughout Gaza,” said a spokesperson.
An Israeli security official, who asked not to be identified, said that looting has ebbed in recent weeks but remains a challenge. — Reuters