In the early hours of Sunday morning, at precisely 1:57 a.m., the Israel Defense Forces issued a statement announcing that a projectile had been fired from Yemen in the direction of Israel. The IDF noted that Israel Air Force defense units were actively engaged in attempting to neutralize the threat mid-air.
Moments afterward, air raid sirens blared throughout central Israel, including Tel Aviv and its surrounding cities, alerting residents to take cover.
Shortly thereafter, the military confirmed, “a missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted. Sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol.”
Two days earlier, on Friday, a squadron of 15 Israeli fighter jets carried out a coordinated strike on Houthi positions in Yemen, deploying more than 30 precision-guided bombs on multiple installations associated with the Houthi terror group.
This latest mission marked the eighth instance in which Israeli forces have carried out aerial operations targeting Houthi militants in Yemen since the onset of the current conflict.
The Friday attack came in direct response to another ballistic missile fired by the Houthis toward Israel late Thursday night.
That missile was successfully taken down by the Arrow 3 missile defense system, but not before warning sirens were triggered at 9:10 p.m. across a wide swath of Israel, including the Dan metropolitan area, the Sharon Plain, the Shfela lowlands, and several parts of Judea and Samaria.
The sirens disrupted Lag Ba’Omer festivities, with many families and children gathered around bonfires forced to seek shelter due to the incoming threat.
Additionally, the launch interfered with normal flight operations at Ben Gurion Airport, causing a brief suspension of both departures and arrivals. Debris from the intercepted missile was later discovered in Alon Shvut, a neighborhood in Gush Etzion.
{Matzav.com Israel}