The Israeli military said the sirens that sounded in central Israel were set off by a “surface-to-surface missile” that crossed into Israel “from the east” and “fell in an open area”.
In an update on X, the Israeli military claimed a missile that “landed in an open area” in central Israel, was “launched from Yemen”.
“Explosive sounds heard in the last few minutes” were caused by Israeli systems intercepting the missile, the military added.
The missile triggered air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and across central Israel, including the Ben Gurion international airport, sending residents running for shelter.
The missile landed near Route 1 highway southeast of Tel Aviv and Gezer power plant, with media reports saying dozens of failed interception attempts led to Iron Dome missiles crashing and starting fires in a number of locations.
Videos and pictures posted online showed smoke rising from scrubland near the Route 1 highway after the Israeli military attempted to shoot down the ballistic missile.
An image showed damage to an escalator at a train station on the outskirts of Modiin, some 25 kilometers east of Tel Aviv.
Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency services, said in a post on X that nine people had suffered minor injuries as they sought shelter.
Hours later, Yemen’s Houthi group announced its forces carried out a “military operation targeting a military target” in Jaffa, using “a new hypersonic ballistic missile that succeeded in reaching its target”.
Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group fired towards “a military target in the Jaffa area in occupied Palestine”.
He added the operation employed a new hypersonic ballistic missile, which reached its target without being intercepted.
According to Saree, the hypersonic missile covered a distance of 2,040km (1,268 miles) in 11-and-a-half minutes, causing two million Israelis to flee to shelters “for the first time in the enemy’s history”.
He warned Israel can expect more significant operations as the first anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack approaches.
The Yemeni fighters have been targeting the occupied territories as well as Israeli ships and vessels affiliated with the regime since October 7, when Tel Aviv began a genocidal war against the Gaza Strip.
They have vowed to keep up their operations as long as the regime sustained the war and a simultaneous siege that it has been enforcing against the Palestinian territory.
Back in mid-July, Yemen’s Houthi group claimed responsibility for a drone attack on Tel Aviv, which killed one person and injured at least 10.
It claimed that it used a new drone “capable of bypassing interceptor systems and being unable to be detected by radars”.
