Air raid alarms sounded early Sunday in central Israel due to the arrival of a ballistic missile fired from Yemen, the Israeli military confirmed in a statement, although it did not yet specify whether it had managed to intercept it.
“A surface-to-surface missile was identified as it crossed central Israel and fell into an open area. The explosions heard a few minutes ago are interceptor missiles. The result of these interceptions is under investigation,” they said in the text.
Israel’s Magen David Amon emergency service reported that its paramedics treated and evacuated about nine people to Sheba Tel Hashomer, Shamir Assaf Harofe, Belinson, Kaplan and Meir hospitals, who sustained minor injuries as they made their way to the shelters where they were evacuated after hearing the sirens.
Similarly, the army announced that there would be no change in the directives for the civilian population following this incident for this Sunday.
Videos posted on social media show smoke rising from bushes, apparently from shrapnel, near Highway 1.
Another image also shows damage to an escalator at a train station on the outskirts of Modin, about 25 kilometers east of Tel Aviv. Israeli police are searching for shrapnel in the area, according to media reports.
With the outbreak of the war in Gaza, pro-Iranian Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility in recent months for launching drones and projectiles into Israeli territory, as well as attacks in the Red Sea against Israeli ships, as has the Lebanese group on the border with Israel, in solidarity with the Palestinians.
On July 19, a drone fired and claimed by the Houthis struck a building in Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding eight. The explosion occurred without prior air raid alarms, which Israel justified by the type of drone used by the Yemenis.
The Houthis and Hezbollah insist that their attacks on Israeli territory will cease when Israel ends its war in the Gaza Strip with nearly 41,200 dead; until this scenario comes to fruition, the international community’s fear that a regional conflict could break out at some point has remained dormant for months.
