File Photo: A handout picture released by Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah Media Center, shows the reported launching of a missile named Palestine 2 as part of an attack on central Israel. AFP
Sirens sounded in Haifa, Krayot and other areas west of the Sea of Galilee, the Israeli army said.
“An interceptor was launched toward the missile, and the missile was most likely successfully intercepted,”Tel Aviv said.
Those in the area could hear booms in the predawn darkness.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree later confirmed the operation in a prerecorded message, saying they targeted Haifa with a hypersonic missile. Wednesday's operation was the first to reach the area, the Israeli army acknowledged.
American airstrikes, meanwhile, continued attacking the Houthis on Wednesday morning, part of a brutal airstrike that began on March 15. The Houthis reported strikes on Hodeida, Marib and Saada governorates. In Marib, the Houthis described a strike hitting telecommunication equipment, which has previously been a target of the Americans.
Houthis downed another US drone
The Houthis, in response, have stepped up their targeting of American drones flying over the country. Late Tuesday, Saree said the rebels shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone over Yemen's Hajjah governorate.
The U.S. Army acknowledged the report of the drone being downed, but said it could not comment further.
Saree said the rebels targeted the drone with “a locally manufactured missile.” The Houthis have surface-to-air missiles, such as the Iranian missile known as the 358, capable of downing aircraft. The Houthis added that they downed 26 MQ-9s over the last decade of the Yemen war.
General Atomics Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes over 40,000 feet (12,100 meters) and remain in the air for over 30 hours. They have been flown by both the U.S. military and the CIA for years over Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Yemen.
New US airstrikes
The U.S. is attacking the Houthis as the group is showing support to the Palestinians amid the Israeli ongoing genocidal war on Gaza by targeting Israel-linked shipping in the Red Sea.
The new U.S. attacks against Yemen under President Donald Trump is more extensive than attacks on the group were under President Joe Biden, an AP review found. The new strikes started after the rebels threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking all food, gods and aid from entering the Gaza Strip.
From November 2023 until this January, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually. The Houthis also launched attacks targeting American warships without success.
Assessing the toll of the month-old U.S. airstrike attacks has been difficult because the army hasn’t released information about the attacks, including what was targeted and how many people were killed.
The Houthis, meanwhile, strictly control access to attacked areas and don’t publish complete information on the strikes.
Last week, the Americans killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others in a strike on the Ras Isa fuel port, the deadliest-known attack of the American campaign.
* This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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