Israel successfully used its “Arrow 3” anti-missile missile on Thursday to intercept a surface-to-surface missile fired by Iran-backed Houthi terrorists from Yemen toward the Red Sea port city of Eilat.

The Arrow 3 was jointly developed with the United States, and Thursday marked its first successful use in active combat.

The Times of Israel reported:

For the first time ever, Israel’s most advanced air defense system, the Arrow 3, made a successful interception of a missile heading for the country’s southernmost city of Eilat, the IDF and the Defense Ministry announce.

The surface-to-surface missile, apparently launched from Yemen, was intercepted by an Arrow 3 missile over the Red Sea.

It marks the first time an Arrow 3 missile has been launched in an operational incident, and the first-ever interception.

The Arrow 3 intercepts ballistic missiles while they are still in space, and before they reenter the atmosphere.

Earlier, the Times noted, the Houthis claimed to have launched several attacks against Israel. Israel’s Army Radio reported that a drone had landed without warning at an Israeli school, where a “miracle” took place: the children were attending a class in the school’s bomb shelter at the time and there were no injuries. Israel used a Patriot missile to take out another suspicious airborne object.

Separately, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a statement touting the strength of its fully deployed air defense systems, the “Aerial Defense Array.” It noted “For the first time, all the aerial defense systems are working simultaneously — Iron Dome, David’s Sling, MIM-104 Patriot and Arrow. All of these provide protection in every layer of aerial defense and enable optimal protection of the Israeli home front.”

The IDF added that Palestinian and Lebanese terrorists had fired about 9,500 rockets at Israel since the Hamas terror attack of October 7 launched the war. Of these, 12% of the total had landed in the Gaza Strip itself, and about 900 — nearly 10% — were launched “from civilian sites such as: mosques, schools, hospitals and cultural centers.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.