Zain Khalil/Anatolia
Hebrew media reported, on Saturday, that the death toll from a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis from Yemen in the city of Tel Aviv in central Israel had risen to 20, while the Israeli army admitted that its attempts to intercept the missile had failed.
The private Channel 12 quoted Wolfson Hospital in the city of Holon as saying: “Twenty people with minor injuries arrived at the hospital tonight, including children, as a result of the missile launch from Yemen.”
The newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth” quoted eyewitnesses living near the site of the ballistic missile fall that “the sound of the explosion occurred before the alarm was raised.”
In turn, the Israeli army said, in a statement published on its account on the “X” platform: “Following the sirens that were activated a short while ago in the center of the country, the launch of one missile from Yemen was detected, and attempts to intercept it were unsuccessful, and its fall in the region was monitored.”
Israeli Army Radio published a video clip showing the failed attempts to intercept the Houthi missile.
The radio said that two interceptor missiles were fired at the Houthi missile, “but they failed to intercept it and exploded in the air, and the missile then fell in the Jaffa area.”
On Saturday morning, the Israeli ambulance announced that 16 people were slightly injured as a result of glass shards resulting from the fall of a missile launched from Yemen in Tel Aviv, before announcing that the death toll had risen to 20.
This came after sirens sounded in central Israel at 03:50 am (01:50 GMT) due to a missile being launched from Yemen, according to the Israeli newspaper “Jerusalem Post”.
For its part, the Yemeni Houthi group announced, on Saturday, that it had bombed an Israeli military target in the occupied city of Jaffa (centre) with a hypersonic ballistic missile, “Palestine 2.”
In a televised statement, the military spokesman for the group’s forces, Yahya Saree, said: “The hypersonic missile over Jaffa hit its target accurately, and the enemy’s interception systems failed to confront it.”
On Thursday morning, Israel launched a series of raids on the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and the Hodeidah Governorate overlooking the Red Sea in the west of the country, which are under the control of the Houthis.
Media outlets affiliated with the Yemeni Houthi group reported that Israel launched a series of raids targeting ports and energy infrastructure in the capital, Sanaa, and Hodeidah Governorate on the Red Sea coast (west), killing 9 citizens and wounding 3.
According to a count by the Anadolu correspondent, citing news from the Houthi-run Al-Masirah Channel, Sanaa was subjected to 6 raids, while Hodeidah was targeted with 10 raids.
This is the third attack launched by Israel against Yemen since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza in October 2023, as the first was in July and the second in September 2024, by targeting the port of Hodeidah and the fuel facilities in the city’s power plant.
For the third day in a row, the Houthi group is targeting Israeli sites in occupied Palestine, as it announced, on Thursday, the implementation of 3 military operations on Israeli sites in conjunction with Israeli raids on Sanaa and Hodeidah.
On Thursday evening, the Houthi group announced that it had bombed two “specific” military targets in the city of Jaffa in central Israel with two “Palestine 2” ballistic missiles.
It also targeted, on Friday, “in a joint operation with the Iraqi Islamic Resistance the south of occupied Palestine and the Jaffa region (central), with a number of drones.”
And “in solidarity with Gaza” in the face of the ongoing Israeli genocidal war on the Strip since October 7, 2023, which led to the death and injury of more than 152,000 Palestinians, the Houthi group, since November of the same year, began targeting cargo ships linked to Israel. In the Red Sea with missiles and drones.
The Houthi also launches attacks with missiles and drones on Israel from time to time, some of which targeted Tel Aviv, and stipulates stopping its attacks as an end to the Israeli war of annihilation in Gaza.