Residents examine the scene of a missile attack in Tel Aviv that caused minor injuries to 16 after landing in a playground area in Jaffa early Saturday morning. Photo by Abir Sultan/EPA-EFE
A missile launched by Yemen-based Houthis struck Tel Aviv-Jaffa and caused minor injuries to 16 after Israeli countermeasures failed to intercept the missile early Saturday morning.
Houthi forces in Yemen said they launched a hypersonic ballistic missile named “Palestine 2” that landed and detonated in the Jaffa area near Tel Aviv, NBC News reported. Advertisement
The missile didn’t cause any significant property damage and only minor injuries from shattered glass that required civilians to obtain medical treatment.
Houthi leaders said the missile attack was in retaliation for the “massacres against our brothers in Gaza.”
“The missile hit its target accurately and the defense and interception systems failed to intercept it,” Houthi leaders said in a statement issued Saturday morning.
The Houthis said they struck a military target, but the Israeli military said it landed in a public park early in the morning, the BBC reported.
Israel Defense Forces confirmed a single missile landed in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area after the IDF failed to intercept it and sounded sirens warning civilians of the incoming missile.
A photo of the missile’s impact site showed a small crater in the ground with playground equipment located nearby. Advertisement
The resulting explosion shattered glass on nearby buildings, which caused minor injuries.
The missile attack occurred shortly after an Israeli airstrike struck a house in northern Gaza on Friday night, killing several people, some of whom were children.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reported 25 deaths Friday from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
Twelve died when a house in Jabaliya in northern Gaza was struck with most of the victims being children and one woman, the Health Ministry reported.
Israel also targeted Yemen’s capital city of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeidah with an airstrike that killed nine on Thursday.
That airstrike occurred after Israel intercepted a missile the Houthis launched at Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday confirmed the military action against Houthi targets in Yemen.
“We did this in response to repeated Houthi attacks against civilian targets in Israel,” Netanyahu said. “Last night they attacked a school in Ramat Gan.”
Netanyahu said the Houthis are nearly the “last arm of Iran’s axis of evil” following the apparent defeat of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Assad regime in Syria and “are attacking the entire world” by targeting international shipping and commercial lanes. Advertisement
“Thus, when Israel takes action against the Houthis, it is acting on behalf of the entire international community,” Netanyahu said. “They are finding out, and will find out, the hard way that whoever harms Israel will pay a very heavy price.”
