The Iran-backed Houthi terrorist group stepped up its aerial attack on Israel as it launched a ballistic missile and an explosive drone on Saturday.
Dozens of people were injured near Tel Aviv when a missile launched from Yemen struck a children’s playground. “A missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi jihadists overnight Friday exploded in a public park in south Tel Aviv after Israeli air defenses failed to intercept it, leaving 16 mildly injured by glass shards,” Israel’s i24NEWS TV channel reported. “14 others were bruised as they ran to shelters.”
The Yemen-based Islamist group boasted of firing a “hypersonic ballistic missile,” known as Palestine 2. “In a statement, the Houthis said they had “targeted a military target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of” Tel Aviv using a ballistic missile,” the France24 TV channel reported.
The Jerusalem Post reported the details of the ballistic missile attack:
Sixteen people were lightly wounded by glass shards early on Saturday morning after a rocket fired from Yemen slammed into the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area, Israel’s emergency medical service, Magen-David Adom, reported.Prior to the impact, sirens sounded across central Israel at 3:50 a.m.MDA also treated 14 others who sustained minor injuries as they made their way to protected areas. The ambulance service additionally treated another seven who suffered from anxiety.MDA said that ambulances, mobile intensive care units, and medicycle EMTs were dispatched to the scene and that the wounded, all of whom were in stable condition, were evacuated to Wolfson Medical Center in Holon and Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.”The scene was complex as the blast impact affected apartments in the nearby buildings,” MDA paramedics Noam Weisbuch and senior EMT Noa Shimony stated.”Initially, several mildly injured patients from glass shards and people suffering from anxiety arrived. We conducted searches in the apartments, treated and evacuated 16 lightly injured individuals from the scene, including a 3-year-old girl, and also treated those affected by anxiety.”
Iran’s growing military expertise could be a key reason behind recent Houthi ballistic missiles managing to partially evade the Israeli air defenses, Israeli news website YNET noted.
“Two main reasons might explain Saturday’s interception failure. The first is that the missile was launched in a “flat” ballistic trajectory, possibly from an unexpected direction. As a result, Israeli or U.S. detection systems in Saudi Arabia may not have identified it in time, leading to its late discovery and insufficient time for interceptors to operate,” the news website wrote Saturday. “The second and more likely reason is that the Iranians have developed maneuvering warheads. These warheads separate from the missile during the final third of their trajectory and execute programmed maneuvers — changing direction and course — before striking their target.”
The Houthi missile strike was followed by a drone attack. The military disclosed Saturday afternoon that “a UAV that crossed into Israeli territory from the east was intercepted by the IAF (Israeli Air Force).”
This is the third missile attack from the Yemini terrorist group on Israel within a week. The Israeli air defenses, on Monday, shot down a Houthi ballistic missile before it could enter the country’s air space. On Wednesday, falling debris of an intercepted Houthi missile landed on a school near Tel Aviv. Israeli armed forces “said sections from the missile or from an interceptor fell to the ground, with one chunk landing on the main building of the school, demolishing it,” The Times of Israel reported earlier this week. On Monday,
Since October 7, the jihadist group has fired hundreds of missiles and drones towards Israel since October. In July, a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv killed a 50-year-old civilian. In a bid to support the Gaza-based terror group Hamas, Houthis have been trying to impose an illegal maritime embargo on Israel, hijacking and attacking Western-owned ships in the Red Sea. “the Houthis carried out 238 attacks against shipping in the Red Sea area, using missiles, UAVs, and explosive boats,” the Israel-based strategic think-tank Alma noted earlier this week.
Israel conducted three airstrikes in response, targeting Yemen-based terrorist targets. The latest Israeli aerial strike was carried out on Thursday where fighter jets hit ports and oil depots controlled by the Iranian proxy terror group.
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