A missile fired by Yemen’s rebels lands in Israel and triggers sirens at international airport

JERUSALEM (AP) — A missile fired by Yemen’s Iran-backed rebels landed in an open area in central Israel early Sunday and triggered air raid sirens at its international airport, in the latest reverberation from the nearly yearlong war in Gaza. There were no reports of casualties or major damage, but Israeli media aired footage showing people racing to shelters in Ben Gurion International Airport. A fire could be seen in a rural area of central Israel, and local media showed images of what appeared to be a fragment from an interceptor that landed on an escalator in a train station in the central town of Modiin. Israel’s army said the surface-to-surface missile was intercepted by Israel’s defense system, which hit and fragmented the target but did not destroy it. The Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis, have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel since the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, but nearly all of them have been intercepted over the Red Sea. Israel responded with a wave of airstrikes on Houthi-held areas of Yemen, including the port city of Hodeidah, a Houthi stronghold. “The Houthis should have known by now that we exact a heavy price for any attempt to harm us,” he said. Gen. Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the rebels, said they fired a ballistic missile targeting “a military target” in the area of Tel Aviv. The Houthis have also repeatedly attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea, in what the rebels portray as a blockade on Israel in support of the Palestinians. A police officer inspects the area around a fire after the military said it fired interceptors at a missile launched from Yemen that landed in central Israel on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg) A firefighter works in the area around a fire after the military said it fired interceptors at a missile launched from Yemen that landed in central Israel on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg) The war in Gaza, which began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel, has rippled across the region, with Iran and allied militant groups attacking Israeli and U.S. targets and drawing retaliatory strikes from Israel and its Western allies. Iran supports militant groups across the region, including Hamas, the Houthis and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, its most powerful ally, which has traded fire with Israel on a near-daily basis since the war in Gaza began. Israel says ‘high probability’ its strike killed three hostages in Gaza On Sunday, the Israeli military said there was a “high probability” that three hostages found dead months ago were killed in an Israeli airstrike. It said investigations had determined that the three were likely killed in a November airstrike that also killed a senior Hamas militant, Ahmed Ghandour. In its report, the army said there was a “high probability” they were killed in the strike, based on where the bodies were recovered, pathological reports and other intelligence. But it said, “it is not possible to definitely determine the circumstances of their deaths.” The conclusions could add pressure on the government to strike a deal to bring home the remaining hostages held by Hamas. Late last month, Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages that it says were killed by Hamas captors shortly before Israeli forces arrived. In other cases of bodies being recovered, the army has said people were either killed on Oct. 7, died in Hamas captivity or were killed by the militant group. In December, the army acknowledged mistakenly killing three hostages who had escaped Hamas captivity in a battle-torn neighborhood of Gaza City. Israel now believes 101 remain in captivity, including 35 who are thought to be dead. Also on Sunday, an Israeli border police officer was stabbed near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate and the attacker was shot and killed trying to escape, said the police. Rockets fired from Lebanon The military said that around 40 projectiles were fired from Lebanon early Sunday, with most intercepted or falling in open areas. In a separate incident, Israeli forces dropped leaflets over the Lebanese border town of al-Wazzani, calling on residents to evacuate. The military later said there were no such evacuation orders, and that a local commander had acted without the approval of his superiors. Ahmad al-Mohammed, the mayor of Al-Wazzani, said most of the town’s remaining residents had not heeded the evacuation order. “This requires a change in the balance of power on our northern border,” Netanyahu said at the Cabinet meeting. The United States and Arab mediators Egypt and Qatar have spent much of this year trying to broker a truce and the release of scores of hostages held by Hamas, but the talks have repeatedly bogged down. In recent weeks, Netanyahu has insisted on lasting Israeli control over the Gaza side of the border with Egypt, which Israeli forces captured in May. He has said Hamas used a network of tunnels beneath the border to import arms, allegations denied by Egypt, which along with Hamas is opposed to any lasting Israeli presence there. An Israeli military official said late Saturday that of the dozens of tunnels discovered along the border, only nine entered Egypt, and all were found to have been sealed off. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence, said that it wasn’t clear when the tunnels were sealed. Egypt has said it sealed off the tunnels on its side of the border years ago, in part by creating its own military buffer zone along the frontier. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://apnews.com/5f26be6628a0e7df38bc933520552f5b