Israel announced that its air defenses shot down a surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen today, Reuters reported, citing BTA.
This morning Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they fired several rockets at the Israeli city of Eilat on the Red Sea coast.
The attack fueled an escalation of violence between Israel and the Houthis, which began on Friday when Yemeni rebels carried out a drone strike that killed one and wounded four in central Tel Aviv.
In response, Israeli warplanes launched an attack on the port city of Hodeida yesterday, striking Houthi military targets. Yemeni medical sources told Reuters today that six people were killed and 80 wounded in the attack, all of them civilians. According to the "Al-Masira" television channel, considered close to the Houthis, three people died in the strike, citing the director of the local hospital, Khalid Suhail.
Images from the scene show heavy fire and thick smoke rising from the impact site.
The Israeli military said that its missile defense system "Arrow 3" (Arrow 3) shot down the projectile fired from Yemen earlier today before it entered Israeli territory. Air raid sirens sounded in Eilat before the interception, prompting residents of the resort town to seek shelter.
The exchange of strikes is part of the spillover of the conflict in the Gaza Strip, which has been going on for more than nine months and has involved regional and world powers.
Groups linked to Iran, including the Houthis, have fired rockets and projectiles at Israel, saying they were doing so in support of the Palestinians and the militant group Hamas, which controls the coastal enclave. The United States and its allies support Israel and provide it with weapons, notes Reuters.
The war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7 after the cross-border attack by fighters of "Hamas" and other groups against towns and kibbutzim in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials. Since then, Israel began bombing the enclave and later launched a ground offensive. According to the "Hamas" health ministry in the Gaza Strip nearly 39,000 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict began. The Palestinian Authority does not distinguish between the dead fighters and the civilian population.
The Houthi rebels, who control much of northern Yemen as well as other major towns in the country, have previously said they attacked both Eilat and other targets inside Israel in retaliation for the war in the Palestinian enclave. . The Houthis are also attacking ships in the Red Sea and say they want to force Israel to end attacks on the Gaza Strip, following an unprecedented assault by Hamas. in Israel last October.
Among the allies of "Hamas" are a large part of Iran-backed groups in the region, known as the "Axis of Resistance", which include Yemen's Houthi rebels, the Lebanese Islamist movement "Hezbollah", Iraqi paramilitary groups and others, Reuters notes.