Israel is fighting its first-ever “missile war,” according to Defense Minister Israel Katz, who made the statement Tuesday during a visit to the Arrow air defense battery together with the commander of the IDF’s Air Defense Division, Brigadier General Gilad Biran.
Katz visited the installation after an Arrow system intercepted a hypersonic ballistic missile fired at Israel earlier in the day by Iran’s proxy in Yemen, the Houthis.
The attack triggered Red Alert sirens throughout central Israel and in a number of northern Negev communities as well, including the small desert city of Arad, which was hit by Iranian missiles during both attacks earlier this year.
One woman was seriously injured, with a head wound, during Tuesday’s Houthi attack while running to a protected space in central Israel.
During the visit, the Defense Minister received an operational review at the battery’s interception management center from the commander of Battalion 136, Lt. Col. Eyal Frenkel, and other commanders in the division.
Congratulating the Arrow team, Katz emphasized that Israel has the best air defense capability in the world and vowed to target the Houthi leaders.
In addition, for the first time Katz revealed that Israel had indeed assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
“We know that we have someone to rely on,” he said. “Millions trust you, wake up to the sound of the alarms but know that there is someone who will deal with the threat.
“We will not accept the fact that the Houthis continue to fire on the State of Israel,” Katz said.
“I warned and said that just as we dealt with [Gaza’s Hamas chief Yahya] Sinwar in Gaza, Haniyeh in Tehran and [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah in Beirut – we will also deal with the heads of the Houthis in Sana’a and everywhere in Yemen,” he pledged.
“We will act both against their infrastructure and against them in order to remove the threat and eliminate the threats to the State of Israel, in order to achieve our goals. Whoever sponsors Houthi terrorism in Hodeidah or Sana’a will pay the full price.”
“The threat in the skies today is the first missile war and we will act with great force in an attack to remove the threats from the State of Israel.”
