The Iran-backed Houthi militias officially claimed on Tuesday missile and drone attacks targeting Israel.
This marks the first time the militias claim attacks that American and Israeli forces previously said had been launched from the southern Red Sea region.
In a televised statement, Houthi military spokesman Yehya Saree claimed that the militias “launched a large batch of ballistic missiles and a large number of drones at various targets of the Israeli enemy.”
“This operation is the third operation in support of our oppressed brothers in Palestine and confirm that we will continue to carry out more qualitative strikes with missiles and drones until the Israeli aggression stops,” he added.
Israel said on Tuesday its fighter jets and its new Arrow missile defense system shot down two salvos of incoming fire hours apart as it approached the country's key Red Sea shipping port of Eilat.
The missile fire sparked a rare air raid siren alarm to go off in Eilat, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Jerusalem, sending people fleeing into shelters.
Days ago, American, Israeli and Egyptian media had reported on a mysterious explosion Thursday that hit the Egyptian resort town of Taba, near the border with Israel. The blast wounded six people. The reports said the attack had been launched from the southern Red Sea.
For Israel, Tuesday's attack marked an incredibly rare reported in-combat use of the Arrow missile defense system, which intercepts long-range ballistic missiles with a warhead designed to destroy targets while they are in space, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“All aerial threats were intercepted outside of Israeli territory,” the Israeli military said. “No infiltrations were identified into Israeli territory.”
Observers and analysts question the efficiency of the Houthi missiles and drones, accusing the militias of exploiting the developments in Gaza to gain sympathy among the Yemeni people.
Houthi leader Abdulmalek al-Houthi had previously claimed that his group would join the war on Gaza if the US directly became involved by siding with Israel.
The Yemeni people dismissed and mocked the Houthis’ “false heroics”, demanding that they instead focus their attention on the suffering in Yemen, not Palestine, lifting the siege on Taiz city and ending the violations on the ground.
The Houthis have previously threatened to attack marine routes in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
They have also exploited the conflict in Gaza to impose more tariffs on the people, who have been plunged into poverty because of the militias’ practices, including the withholding of wages of public sector employees for seven years.
The Houthis have called on the people to make donations for the people in Gaza, prompting the ire of Yemenis who can barely make ends meet because of the Houthi practices that have led to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country.
