Yemen’s Houthi-led government in Sana’a said on Tuesday that it fired a large number of drones and missiles towards Israel’s southern city of Eilat in response to the continued Israeli onslaught against Gaza.
A spokesperson for Yemen’s military, Yahya Saree, said the missile strike on Israel was their third attempt to hit Israel since the Gaza aggression started, and he threatened to carry out more strikes “until Israeli aggression stops.”
He said: “It was necessary for Arab and Muslim nations to stand for Gaza, their children and women. We have a real sense of religious, moral and humanitarian responsibility. In response to our dear Yemeni people and the demands of the free peoples and our oppressed people in Gaza, the Yemeni armed forces had to carry out their duty by relying on God and achieving victory over the historical oppression of the Palestinian people.
“Accordingly, with Allah’s help, our armed forces launched, a large number of ballistic and winged missiles and a large number of drones have been launched at various targets of the Israeli enemy in Palestine.”
Additionally, Saree described the attacks as supportive of Palestinians who are facing “American-Israeli aggression” amid the “weakness of the official Arab regimes and the collusion of some with the Israeli enemy.”
On Tuesday night, Israel confirmed that a threat appearing to originate from Yemen had been intercepted.
Local Israeli media reported an Israeli army statement saying: “Air defense fighters intercepted an aerial threat that was detected in the Red Sea south of Eilat.”
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A further press release stated: “A surface-to-surface missile fired towards Israel from the Red Sea was intercepted using the long-range Arrow-Hetz 3 missile system.”
In response to the new threat from Yemen, Israel announced the deployment of warships in the Red Sea region on Wednesday as part of what it called “strengthening defense efforts in the area.”
Regional tensions have spiked following a surprise attack by Hamas against Israel on October 7. Since then, increasingly heavy border skirmishes in south Lebanon have occurred while a war of words between Iran and the U.S. has raised fears of a greater expansion of fighting across the region. Iran denies having any role in the Hamas attack.
Meanwhile, Israel has expanded its air and ground attacks on Gaza, which has been under relentless bombardment for more than three weeks.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s air attacks, while in Israel, the death toll has topped 1,400, according to Israeli sources.
