Houthis say over 2m Israelis fled to shelters after missile strike

The Houthi missile strike on Israel yesterday sent two million Israelis to flee to shelters “for the first time in the enemy’s history,” the group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a statement yesterday.

He added that the group’s qualitative military operation using a hypersonic missile and that it comes as the culmination of efforts to develop missile technology, pointing out that the hypersonic missile travelled a distance of approximately 2,400 kilometres within 11 and a half minutes.

“The geographic obstacles, the American-British aggression, and the monitoring, espionage and confrontation systems will not prevent Yemen from performing its religious, moral and humanitarian duty in victory for the Palestinian people, and the Israeli enemy must expect more strikes and qualitative operations to come,” he added.

Nine Israelis received minor injuries as they rushed to shelters following the launch of a surface-to-surface missile from Yemen towards central Israel.

For his part, the spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, Abu Obaida, praised “the qualitative operation” and the Yemeni people’s stance alongside their brothers in Palestine.”

“The weapon used in the operation, the type of target and other details that our brothers in Yemen informed us of, constitute a qualitative shift that will have important effects on the course and outcomes of the Battle of the Flood of Al-Aqsa,” he added.

Since November, the Houthis have been carrying out attacks in the Red Sea targeting Israeli owned or bound ships “in support of Palestine”.

The group stressed earlier that it would only stop its attacks in the Red Sea when the Israeli aggression on Gaza ends, the siege is lifted and humanitarian aid is allowed in.

The ongoing Israeli bombing of Gaza has so far killed more than 41,206 Palestinians, wounded 95,337 others, and caused the displacement of 90 per cent of the Strip’s population, according to UN data.

Read: Houthis vow to continue attacks on Israel until siege, aggression on Gaza ends