The Houthis fired a surface-to-surface missile that reached Israel at 6:32 a.m. on Sunday morning, local time, triggering sirens all over the area near Tel Aviv, but exploding in an open area without causing any damage.
The missile was detected in the midst of the morning news broadcast on Army Radio, taking the announcer by surprise. At first, it was unclear whether the sirens had been caused because of rockets fired from the south (Hamas) or the north (Hezbollah); then a report came that it had actually entered Israeli airspace from the east, sparking speculation that it had been fired by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq; then confirmation came that it had actually been fired by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, taking a circuitous route to enter Israel from an unexpected direction.
The missile was very large, according to Army Radio, and had been difficult to hit because it entered Israeli airspace at a low altitude. The missile was capable of carrying a payload of hundreds of kilograms’ worth of explosives.
It was unclear whether Israel’s Arrow missile defense system had hit the missile. Army Radio reported that the Iron Dome system, which deals with smaller, shorter-range rockets, deployed to hit shrapnel and missile fragments.
Israel struck the Houthis in July, after a drone fired from Yemen reached Tel Aviv without being intercepted.
Update: Israeli media reported that the Arrow system had intercepted the missile, but that there were concerns that the system had not intercepted the missile outside of Israeli airspace. “IDF sources accepted that the Arrow 3 defense system may have missed the missile outside of Israeli airspace, with the Arrow 2 system shooting it down over Israeli airspace on the second try,” the Jerusalem Post reported. Five Israelis were wounded while running for shelter.
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 Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Photo: file