Missile fired from Yemen lands in central Israel, triggers sirens at international airport

 Jeusalem:  A missile fired from Yemen landed in an open area in central Israel early Sunday, the Israeli military said, in the latest reverberation from the nearly yearlong war in Gaza.

 The early morning attack triggered air raid sirens, including at Israel’s international airport, where local media aired footage of people racing to shelters.

There were no reports of casualties or damage, and the airport authority said operations resumed as normal shortly thereafter.

 A fire could be seen in a rural area of central Israel, and local media showed images of what appeared to be a fragment from a missile or interceptor that landed on an escalator in a train station in the central town of Modiin.

 The military said the sound of explosions in the area came from interceptors.

 Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel since the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, but nearly all of them have been intercepted over the Red Sea.

 The Houthis did not claim Sunday’s attack directly, but rebel officials appeared to boast about it.

 Hashim Sharaf al-Din, a spokesperson for the Houthi-run government, said Yemenis will celebrate the birthday of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad while “the Israelis will have to be in shelters.

” Another senior Houthi official, Hezam al-Asad, posted a taunting message in Hebrew on the social platform X.

 In July, an Iranian-made drone launched by the Houthis struck Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding 10 others. Israel responded with a wave of airstrikes on Houthi-held areas of Yemen.

 The Houthis have also repeatedly attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea, in what the rebels portray as a blockade on Israel in support of the Palestinians. Most of the targeted ships have no connection to Israel.

 The war in Gaza, which began with Hamas’ October 7 attack into southern Israel, has rippled across the region, with Iran and allied militant groups attacking Israeli and US targets and drawing retaliatory strikes from Israel and its Western allies.

 On several occasions, the strikes and counterstrikes have threatened to trigger a wider conflict.

 International carriers have cancelled fights into and out of Israel on a number of occasions since the start of the war, adding to the war’s economic toll on the country.

 Iran supports militant groups across the region, including Hamas, the Houthis and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, its most powerful ally, which has traded fired with Israel on a near-daily basis since the war in Gaza began.

Iran and its allies say they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.

 The military said around 40 projectiles were fired from Lebanon early Sunday, with most intercepted or falling in open areas.

 The strikes along the Israel-Lebanon border have displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides. Israel has repeatedly threatened to launch a wider military operation against Hezbollah to ensure its citizens can return to their homes.

 Hezbollah has said it would halt its attacks if there is a cease-fire in Gaza.

The United States and Arab mediators Egypt and Qatar have spent much of this year trying to broker a truce and the release of scores of hostages held by Hamas, but the talks have repeatedly bogged down.

 In recent weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted on lasting Israeli control over the Gaza side of the border with Egypt, which Israeli forces captured in May.

He has said Hamas used a network of tunnels beneath the border to import arms, allegations denied by Egypt, which along with Hamas is opposed to any lasting Israeli presence there.

 An Israeli military official said late Saturday that of the dozens of tunnels discovered along the border, only nine entered Egypt, and all were found to have been sealed off.

 The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence, said it was not clear when the tunnels were sealed.

 The discovery appeared to weaken Netanyahu’s argument that Israel needs to keep open-ended control of the corridor to prevent cross-border smuggling.

 Egypt has said it sealed off the tunnels on its side of the border years ago, in part by creating its own military buffer zone along the frontier.