Israel says missile launched from Yemen intercepted
The Israeli military has said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen towards its territory.
“Sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol,” it said in a statement.
Houthis say attacks will continue until Israel ends war on Gaza
This is obviously not an isolated incident. The Houthis in Yemen have said that as long as the war in Gaza continues, they are going to be firing missiles towards Israeli territory and towards Israeli airspace. In fact, since Israel broke the ceasefire [in Gaza] in March, there have been more than 30 projectiles fired by the Houthis.
The most notable one was just around a week ago, when the missile failed to get intercepted and made impact right outside Ben Gurion airport [near Tel Aviv].
What’s interesting about the direction the Houthis are taking this, is that they say that even if these missiles are not having any sort of physical impacts or damage – the ones that are intercepted – it’s still causing a lot of panic within Israel, it’s still costing the Israelis a lot of money per interception.
These are long-range ballistic missiles that don’t just require short-range air defence systems; they require the larger systems they have, such as the Arrow. This is very costly for the Israelis, but at the same time, it does cause a lot of panic within the Israeli security apparatus.
And now, with the rates that these missiles are being fired at, the Israelis say they have no choice but to react, to continue to respond.
