The IDF confirmed shortly afterward that the missile, launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen, was intercepted by the Israeli Air Force. “The alerts were activated in accordance with protocol,” the military said in a statement.
Sirens sounded in areas including Ashdod, Gadera, Yavne, Kiryat Malakhi, Gan Yavne, Bnei Brak, Givat Shmuel, Ness Ziona, Shoham, Be’er Ya’akov, Rishon Lezion, Lod, Givatayim, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Ramat Gan, Yehud-Monosson, Bat Yam, Kiryat Ono, Holon, Beit Shemesh, Rehovot, Modi’in-Maccabim-Reut, Or Yehuda, Savyon, Ramla and Kiryat Gat.
Ben Gurion International Airport briefly suspended takeoffs and landings due to the incident. Several inbound flights, including El Al flights from New York and Batumi, and a flight from Katowice, Poland, were temporarily held in the air. No injuries were reported, according to Magen David Adom emergency services.
The launch came less than 24 hours after the IDF carried out airstrikes on the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah in Yemen—the first Israeli strike in Yemen in two weeks. As part of Operation Long Reach, the IDF targeted military infrastructure, including fuel tanks, vessels used for military activity and engineering equipment involved in restoring the port’s capacity.
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“The port has been used, among other things, to transfer weapons from the Iranian regime, which are then used by the Houthi terrorist regime to execute terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and its allies,” the IDF said. “The IDF has identified the continuous efforts and actions of the Houthi terrorist regime to reestablish terrorist infrastructure at the port, and as such, the components used to advance these efforts were struck."