Yemen strikes target in Tel Aviv outskirts, Sanaa warns ‘more to come’
The ballistic missile traveled over 2,000 kilometers, making impact near Ben Gurion airport after Israeli air defenses failed to intercept it
The Yemeni army fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at central Israel on 15 September, which made impact just a few kilometers southeast of Tel Aviv.
The Armed Forces of Yemen’s Sanaa government, which is merged with the Ansarallah resistance movement, announced the operation in a statement on Sunday morning.
“The missile force of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out an effective military operation through which it targeted a military target of the Israeli enemy in the Yaffa [Tel Aviv] area in occupied Palestine,” the Yemeni army statement read.
“The operation was carried out with a new hypersonic ballistic missile that succeeded, with God’s help, in reaching its target, and the enemy’s defenses failed to intercept and confront it. It covered a distance estimated at 2,040 km within 11 and a half minutes, and caused a state of fear and panic among the Zionists.”
The missile strike forced “more than two million Zionists … to shelters for the first time in the history of the Israeli enemy,” it added.
Yemen warned that Israel “must expect more strikes and qualitative operations to come – as we are on the threshold of the first anniversary of the blessed October 7 operation – including the response to its criminal aggression on the city of Hodeidah.”
The missile activated sirens across central Israel at around 6:30 AM and were heard from Tel Aviv to Modiin.
The Israeli army said the missile fell in an open area and did not cause casualties. Air defense systems failed to bring down the Yemeni missile.
The army said that it was investigating the results of interceptors that were fired at the Yemeni missile. A train station near Modiin was impacted with missile fragments, according to the Times of Israel.
Video footage on social media shows flames and large clouds of black smoke rising from a site of impact at the Modiin train station.
“The missile fell in the town of Kfar Daniel in an area near Ben Gurion Airport. It caused fires in forested areas and material damage to a main train station near the town of Modiin,” Israeli police said, according to Al Jazeera.
Fires also broke out near the Kfar Daniel settlement as a result of the Yemeni attack.
A Yemeni drone attack on Tel Aviv killed one Israeli on 19 July. Israel responded the following day with a massive attack on Yemen’s Hodeidah port, killing six people and injuring dozens of others with severe burns.
The Yemeni statement on Sunday confirmed that the ballistic missile strike would be followed by more attacks, including the response to the strike on Hodeidah.
"Yemen is preparing for war with the enemy using multiple tactics, and knows that the war will be long, and is building its strategic military capabilities on this basis," Yemeni sources told Al Mayadeen on Sunday.
"The enemy cannot predict the time and place of upcoming operations,” the sources added.