CAIRO (Reuters) – The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile that was launched from Yemen towards Israel on Tuesday evening, and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis claimed responsibility.
Sirens were heard in several places in Israel.
The militia group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile towards Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, according to the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree.
President Donald Trump announced on May 6 that the U.S. would stop bombing the Houthis as the group agreed to stop attacking U.S. ships, part of a 17-month campaign against Red Sea shipping intended to show solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
But the Houthis have continued to fire missiles and drones towards Israel, most of which the Israeli military says it has intercepted, without casualties or serious damage occurring.
Israel has been fighting a war in Gaza since a deadly raid by Palestinian militant group Hamas into southern Israel in October 2023, which prompted Israel’s war in Gaza.
The Houthis are part of Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance against Israeli and U.S. interests in the Middle East, a group also including Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Israel has weakened those groups by assassinating top leaders and destroying military infrastructure since the Gaza war began, though Houthi capabilities appear largely intact.
(Reporting by Elwely Elwely, Menna Alaa El-Din and Muhammed Al Gebaly; Editing by Gareth Jones and Cynthia Osterman)
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