(BBC News) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Yemen’s Houthis will pay a “heavy price” after a missile fired by the group landed in central Israel.
The Israeli military said the missile landed in an uninhabited area early on Sunday, but that shrapnel indicated air defence systems had failed to destroy it before it entered Israeli airspace.
It added that it was investigating how the missile was able to reach so far into Israeli territory.
The strike marks the first time a missile fired by the group has reached central Israel, which is around 2,000 km from Yemen.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said there had been repeated attempts to shoot the missile down on Sunday but that it most likely fragmented in mid-air.
The Houthis claimed the operation used a new type of hypersonic missile, which may help explain the failure of efforts to intercept it.
They are an armed group that seized much of Yemen in the country’s ongoing civil war and have declared themselves part of the Iran-led “axis of resistance” against Israel, the US, and the wider West.
The Houthis said in a statement that Sunday’s attack was carried out in solidarity with the Palestinians and that Israel should expect more ahead of the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks.
Missile fragments landed at a railway station in the city of Modiin, causing some damage, and in open ground near Israel’s main international airport on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
The damage is believed to have been caused by Israel’s own interceptor missiles.