The IDF intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis in Yemen toward central Israel early Tuesday.
The projectile triggered a wave of sirens throughout the Center and South. There were no reports of direct casualties but paramedics treated more than 20 people who were injured while seeking shelter during the sirens, including a 60-year-old woman who suffered from a head injury, and those who required treatment due to anxiety.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would strike back not only at the Houthis’ economic foundations but also at their leaders.
Katz specifically cited Israel’s assassinations of Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas’s Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh as examples of what Jerusalem could do to Houthi leaders.
The defense minister’s mentioning of Haniyeh was also the first time Israel has taken public credit for that assassination, which occurred in Tehran in July. However, it was already widely attributed to the Mossad even then.
Houthis vow to continue
Houthi official Hezam al-Asad vowed to continue attacks on Israel in an X/Twitter post made 15 minutes after the projectile was launched.
“We will not stop until the aggression against our people in Gaza stops,” he wrote. “[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu will know that the dreams of the new Middle East are nothing but a curse for him and his imported entity.”
This comes after previous Houthi ballistic missiles targeted Israel this past week.
On Saturday, 16 people in Tel Aviv were lightly wounded by glass shards after a Houthi rocket slammed into Jaffa.
The IDF said on Tuesday that a probe found a deficiency, which led to no siren being activated in the area. They said adjustments were being made but also said the error was classified for national security reasons.
On early Thursday, the Houthis fired a missile toward central Israel. IAF jets struck Houthi targets in Sana’a afterward, the third time during the current war that the Jewish state has counter-attacked, following reprisals in July and September.
Additionally, the US began conducting strikes on Houthi missile storage and command facilities in Sana’a on Saturday night.
Gaza operations and Arrow 3
In Gaza, the IDF conducted a limited operation against terrorists and their infrastructure in the area of Jabalya’s Indonesian Hospital, the military said on Tuesday.
It said that over the past month, terrorists carried out strikes against the IDF from the area of the hospital, which included anti-missile attacks. It also said terrorists had planted explosive devices and booby traps in the area surrounding the hospital’s compound.
The military said it apprehended a number of terrorists during the operation, including a terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7 attacks. It said the troops eliminated five additional terrorists.
It also emphasized that measures were taken to mitigate harm to the civilian population.
Despite those measures, the Palestinians and foreign media continue with almost daily reports, including ones on Monday, of alleged Palestinian civilian deaths during many IDF strikes.
Hamas has said that 45,000 civilians have been killed, around 29,000 of them women or minors.
The IDF has said it has killed around 17,000-18,000 Hamas terrorists, which could also include some older armed minors while admitting that many civilians have been caught in the crossfire with Hamas, which uses its own civilians as human shields.
Separately, the Defense Ministry announced a multi-billion dollar deal to purchase a large additional quantity of Arrow 3 interceptors.
The ministry said the Arrow defense system had performed exceptionally against Iranian missile attacks both on April 13-14 and October 1.
Observers have voiced concern about how many Arrow interceptors are in Israel’s inventory, given that the Houthis have fired over 200 ballistic missiles and Iran has fired over 300 ballistic missiles.