The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed that a long-range land attack cruise missile fired by Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen on Sunday night succeeded for the first time in penetrating Israeli air space.
The missile landed in an open area north of Israel’s southernmost resort city, Eilat, located along the northern shore of the Red Sea.
The IDF said in a statement late Tuesday that the projectile was a guided missile and entered Israel from air space over the Red Sea.
“A cruise missile coming from the direction of the Red Sea fell in an open area, the target was being monitored by Air Force forces,” the statement said. “The target was tracked by Air Force units. There were no casualties and no damage was caused. The incident is under investigation,” the IDF added.
“Needless to say, the Houthis are of course part of Iran’s Axis of Evil which is trying its hardest to destabilize our region,” Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told reporters Wednesday afternoon in a briefing.
“We of course in Israel reserve the right to deal with anyone that means us harm, and experience has shown that when Iranian proxies or Iran themselves try to do harm to us, they will feel the pressure of the IDF,” Mencer added.
The Houthis have become increasingly skilled at firing advanced weapons provided to them by Iran, along with Iranian military consultants, targeting commercial and military vessels transiting the Red Sea, the Bab el Mandeb Strait and in the Gulf of Aden.
The Iranian proxy group has attempted numerous times to attack the Jewish State, but up to this point their weapons had failed to reach Israeli territory.
The Houthis’ use of a long-range land attack cruise missile certainly represents an escalation in its declared war against Israel, but it may also represent an upgraded arsenal with which to carry out such attacks.
“It is extremely difficult to predict where a guided missile will hit,” journalist Ami Rojkes Dombe pointed out in a piece for Israel Defense.
There have been repeated attacks by Hezbollah terrorists using anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) in northern Israel, including many that successfully evaded detection by Israeli radar and thus did not trigger Red Alert incoming rocket sirens.
Such attacks have sometimes resulted in IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians sustaining serious injuries and have damaged both civilian and military buildings and infrastructure.
