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Israel’s military today intercepted a cruise missile that was launched towards the south of the country, it has said.
After reports of ‘an infiltration by a hostile aircraft’ near the southern Red Sea resort of Eilat, an Israeli fighter jet ‘successfully intercepted a cruise missile that was launched toward Israel’, the IDF said in a statement.
‘No infiltration into Israeli territory was identified,’ it added.
Eilat has previously been targeted by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, with the group declaring itself as part of the ‘axis of resistance’ of Iran’s allies and proxies, and its leader vowing to continue attacks against the Jewish state.
Iran-backed armed groups across the Middle East have been drawn into the war ignited by the Hamas terror group and its October 7 attack on southern Israel, in which gunmen killed around 1,200 people.
Israel has responded with an intense air and ground war that has levelled vast areas of Gaza and claimed more than 14,000 lives according to the Hamas government, while its 2.4 million people endure a punishing siege.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah has traded fire with Israel on a daily basis along the border and the Houthi rebels have launched drones and missiles towards Israel.
On October 20, a US Navy ship in the Red Sea shot down three missiles and several drones fired by Huthis in an attack which the Pentagon said was likely against Israel.
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And on November 9, the Israeli military said its Arrow 3 missile defence system had for the first time destroyed a ‘target’ heading towards Israel from the Red Sea.
This was shortly after Huthi rebels confirmed said they had fired ‘a barrage of ballistic missiles’ at southern Israel.
And on Sunday, the rebels said they had seized the Galaxy Leader, an Israel-linked cargo vessel in what they said was retaliation for Israel’s Gaza war.
Such attacks have raised fears of a wider conflict spilling out in the Middle East.
There was no immediate confirmation that today’s attack originated from Yemen, which is around 1,000 miles from Israel and separated by Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
However, the two countries are connected via the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, with a key shipping lane leading from Eilat, past Yemen and into the Arabian Sea.
The Huthi rebels said their capture of the Galaxy Leader ship over the weekend in the Red Sea was in retaliation for Israel’s war against Hamas.
News of the interception came as a cease-fire agreement between the Hamas terrorist group and Israel was confirmed by both parties.
The first truce in a brutal seven-week war will last for at least four days, allow aid to enter the Gaza Strip and will see at least 50 hostages captured by the terror group on October 7 released in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners.
