Jerusalem, Jan 3 (IANS) The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in two statements that it had intercepted a missile and a drone fired by the Houthi group in Yemen on Friday.
The missile, fired at about 4:30 am local time (0230 GMT), activated sirens across central Israel, including in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, sending millions of residents to shelters.
Israel’s national emergency service, Magen David Adom, said 12 people were injured while heading to shelters.
According to the IDF, the missile was intercepted after it crossed into Israeli territory, with a fragment landing near the city of Modi’in in central Israel.
The missile’s engine was found in a backyard in the Israeli settlement of Har Gilo in the West Bank, near Jerusalem, causing minor damage.
The channel added that flights at Ben Gurion International Airport were halted for about half an hour following the launch, and two were diverted to Larnaca, Cyprus, Xinhua news agency reported quoting the Israel’s Channel 12 TV News.
Later in the morning, the IDF said it had intercepted a drone launched from Yemen before it crossed into Israeli territory. In this case, sirens were not activated.
Earlier on December 28, the IDF had said that it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen aimed at the Jerusalem area.
The IDF statement said that “a projectile launched from Yemen was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory.”
The missile activated air defence sirens in the Jerusalem area, the Judean Lowlands, and the Dead Sea, forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to rush to shelters just after 2:10 am local time (0010 GMT), according to the IDF.
Israeli fighter jets conducted a series of strikes on Yemeni targets, including the international airport in Sanaa and power stations. The airstrikes killed at least six.
On December 27, Yemen’s Houthi group announced that it had launched a ‘hypersonic ballistic missile’ targeting Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, claiming it had hit its target.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a televised statement on Houthi-run al-Masirah TV that the strike had caused casualties and disrupted air traffic at the airport.
“The missile succeeded in reaching its target despite the enemy’s secrecy. The operation resulted in casualties and the suspension of air traffic at the airport,” Sarea alleged.
–IANS
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