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Writer's pictureThe San Juan Daily Star

Israel intercepts missile fired from Yemen as conflict with Houthis continues


A fire at an oil storage facility on Saturday after Israeli strikes in the Houthi-held port city of Hudaydah in Yemen.


By GABY SOBELMAN AND MATTHEW MPOKE BIGG


Israel’s military said Sunday that it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, suggesting that the Yemen-based Houthi militia would keep trying to strike Israel, despite the bombing by Israeli fighter jets of a port in Yemen on Saturday.


The Houthis, which are backed by Iran, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that they had launched the missile at Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city on the coast of the Red Sea, “in response to the American, British and Israeli aggression against our country.” The post said the strike had “achieved its goals,” without giving details.


The conflict between Israel and the Houthis has escalated as the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip and trading aerial attacks with Hezbollah, a militia also backed by Iran, across its northern border with Lebanon.

Israeli air defenses intercepted a missile that “approached Israeli territory from Yemen” following an air raid siren in the Eilat area, according to a statement by the Israeli military. The area is a popular beach resort, and mid-July is high season for Israeli vacationers.


“The projectile did not cross into Israeli territory. Rocket and missile sirens were sounded following the possibility of falling shrapnel,” it said in a statement on social media.


The Israeli airstrikes in Yemen on Saturday were launched in retaliation for a deadly Houthi drone strike on Tel Aviv on Friday. Israeli warplanes hit the Red Sea port of Hodeida, leaving parts of the port in flames. The strikes targeted a power station as well as gas and oil depots, sites used for military purposes, the Israeli military said. It was the first time Israel had publicly struck the group following months of escalating Houthi attacks.


The Ministry of Health in Houthi-controlled Sana, Yemen’s capital, said Sunday that the strikes had killed three people and injured 87, many of whom suffered severe burns. The port plays a critical role in the economy of Yemen, and fuel stored there is vital for the effort to feed the population, which faces a hunger crisis.


The Houthi drone attack early Friday breached Israel’s multilayered air-defense system and hit an apartment building near the U.S. Embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, killing at least one person and wounding eight others. Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, said the retaliatory strikes Saturday were meant to send a regional warning.


“The blow delivered to the port of Hodeida and another location, a power plant, delivers an important message,” he said on Kan radio, part of Israel’s public media network. “When we saw that Iran and Hezbollah are eying this and wondering if perhaps Israel is deterred — Israel’s powerful operation sends a clear message around, because Iran is located 200 kilometers closer than the port of Hodeida.”


Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, said earlier that the port was a major supply stop for Iran to funnel weapons to its Houthi allies, who have fired more than 200 missiles and drones at Israel over the past several months.


The strikes and counterstrikes involving Yemen in recent days are further evidence of the rippling consequences of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel led by Hamas, in which around 1,200 people were killed.


Since Netanyahu launched a war to destroy Hamas in response to that attack, more than 38,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The enclave has been devastated by Israeli airstrikes and fighting, and almost all of its 2.2 million people have been forced to flee their homes.


At the same time, there has been a sharp rise in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged thousands of cross-border aerial attacks. In April there was a significant escalation in what had been a shadow war between Israel and Iran when Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel in retaliation for an apparent Israeli strike on an Iranian embassy in Syria.


Since October, the U.S. government, while providing Israel with diplomatic and military support, has worked to curtail the possibility that the violence could mushroom into a full regional war.


Here’s what else is happening in the Middle East:


— Netanyahu and Biden: Netanyahu is scheduled to meet President Joe Biden on Tuesday afternoon, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office. Netanyahu will be leaving Israel on Monday for the first time since Oct. 7. He is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.


The visit comes at a fraught time for both sides, with Biden’s bid for reelection in question and Netanyahu facing pressures domestically over a prospective cease-fire and hostage deal for Gaza, as well as international censure of Israel’s conduct in the war. The statement did not specify where the meeting would take place. A White House spokesperson said last week that the two leaders were expected to meet during Netanyahu’s U.S. visit.


— Ultra-Orthodox in the Israeli military: The Israeli military began sending initial conscription orders to ultra-Orthodox men Sunday after a landmark Supreme Court decision ordered an end to their long-running exemption from military service.


The military said roughly 1,000 ultra-Orthodox men ages 18 to 26 would receive the orders as part of an attempt to gradually ramp up conscription while avoiding a head-on confrontation with the insular community. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the government had to begin drafting the men, placing a strain on Netanyahu’s coalition, which depends on two ultra-Orthodox parties that support the exemption.

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