Tel Aviv hit by missile fired from Yemen, Israel and Houthis say

CNN—A missile fired from Yemen hit Tel Aviv overnight into Saturday, Israeli authorities said, in a rare instance of a failed interception over the city.Israel’s military said the projectile landed in Tel Aviv’s southern Jaffa area, adding that attempts to intercept a missile from Yemen failed shortly after sirens sounded in the area. More than a dozen people sustained minor injuries, according to emergency services, but no fatalities were reported.Israel’s second-largest city, Tel Aviv is the country’s commercial and diplomatic center. Direct hits from projectiles fired at the coastal city are rare, due to Israel’s extensive air defenses.After the strike, the Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen said they fired a hypersonic ballistic missile labeled “Palestine 2” at an Israeli military target in the Jaffa area early on Saturday.“The missile struck its target accurately and the defenses and interception systems failed to intercept it,” the militant group said in a statement.At least 16 people sustained minor injuries from glass fragments that broke in nearby buildings, Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service said.In addition, 14 victims were treated for slight injuries they sustained seeking shelter, as well as seven panic victims.Resident Beth Shahai, 69, told the Reuters news agency that she heard sirens but the missile exploded before she had time to flee her home.“The ballistic missile landed right behind our building, and all the windows blew in on the first, second floor, and the whole area. It was very frightening,” she said.Since Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza started in October last year, the country has come under fire from missiles and rockets from Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, both Iran-backed militant groups, as well as from Iran itself. Almost all of the projectiles have been intercepted by Israel’s air defenses.People gather at the scene of a missile strike that, according to Israel’s military, was launched from Yemen and landed in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv, Israel, December 21, 2024.Stoyan Nenov/ReutersIsrael’s besiegement and bombardment of Gaza has led to tens of thousands of deaths and a humanitarian catastrophe, while its attacks on Lebanon have killed about 4,000.The Houthis have for months targeted ships in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest waterways, calling the attacks a response to the war in Gaza.The Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah are all part of an Iran-led alliance spanning much of the region, that has attacked Israel and its allies since the war began last year. They say they won’t stop striking Israel and its allies until a ceasefire is reached in the Palestinian enclave.Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel – in which militants killed more than 1,000 people and took hundreds hostage – sparked the more than 14 months of conflict.On Thursday, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, with shrapnel causing extensive damage to a school near Tel Aviv.In November, shrapnel from an intercepted Hezbollah rocket hit a building in the city.And in July, the Houthis claimed responsibility for a deadly drone attack in Tel Aviv – the first such strike on the city by the group.