Yemeni drone reaches southern Israel
The unmanned aircraft was intercepted by the Israeli army over the Red Sea before entering the occupied territories
Alarms sounded in the southern Israeli city of Eilat on 31 October for the first time since the start of the Gaza-Israel war after a “hostile aircraft” attempted to infiltrate Israel from the direction of Yemen.
“[Army]systems detected an aerial target approaching the territory of the State of Israel. There is no threat and no imminent danger," a military statement said.
"We know this threat very well,” Eilat’s mayor, Eli Lankri, told Hebrew news outlet Ynet.
“We have already dealt with it several times in the last week, and there have been successful interceptions. The city's defense systems have been greatly strengthened in recent days. An alarm was raised … this aircraft was taken care of, and now the situation is returning to normal,” he said.
The drone “was intercepted before it entered Israeli territory,” according to Ynet.
“These drones belong to the state of Yemen,” Abdelaziz bin Habtour, Prime Minister of Yemen's National Salvation Government (NSG), told AFP news agency.
Days ago, a member of the Yemeni Ansarallah resistance movement, Hazem al-Assad, posted the word “Eilat” on his social media account.
Assad also posted on Tuesday following the incident that Brigadier General Yahya al-Saree, the Yemeni Armed Forces spokesman, will be making an “important statement."
Ansarallah officials have been making cryptic posts via social media, hinting towards a potential escalation of their involvement in the ongoing war between Gaza and Israel.
This is not the first drone infiltration attempt into Israel from across the Red Sea.
Last week, two drones crashed in Egypt, one near the resort town of Taba on the Red Sea and another being downed and landed in the town of Nuweiba, around 70 kilometers from the Israeli border. The drone crash in Taba injured six.
There were no claims of responsibility, but Israel pointed to Ansarallah.
Earlier in October, Ansarallah launched several missiles and drones north in the direction of Israel, which were intercepted by a US Navy warship.
The Ansarallah movement in Yemen has declared its unequivocal support for the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and has been threatening Israel since long before the start of the war on 7 October.
Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, the Ansarallah leader, recently warned the US against intervening in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, threatening that his forces would retaliate by firing drones and missiles.