TEL AVIV: A rocket fired from Yemen hit an area of Tel Aviv overnight, leaving 16 people injured by shattered glass, the Israeli military said on Saturday, days after Israeli airstrikes hit Houthi rebels who have been launching missiles in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Another 14 people had minor injuries as they rushed to shelters when air raid sirens sounded before dawn, the military said.
The Houthis in a statement on Telegram said they had aimed a hypersonic ballistic missile at a military target that they did not identify. Israel’s military said it was investigating.
“A flash of light, a blow and we fell to the ground. Big mess, broken glasses all over the place,” said Bar Katz, a resident of a damaged building.
The Houthis’ media office later reported airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi-held capital, Sanaa. US forces conducted airstrikes against a missile-storage facility and a command facility operated by the Houthis, the US Central Command said in a statement on X.
The attack on Tel Aviv came after Israeli airstrikes on Sanaa and the port city of Hodeida killed at least nine people on Thursday. The strikes came hours after a missile from Yemen hit a school building in central Israel. The Houthis also claimed a drone strike targeting an unspecified military target in central Israel that day.
Israel’s military says the Iran-backed Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles and drones during the 14-month Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The Houthis have also attacked shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and say they will not stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Israeli strikes on Thursday caused “considerable damage” to the Houthi-controlled Red Sea ports, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The Hodeida port has been key for food shipments into Yemen in its decade-long civil war.
Mourners in Gaza held funerals for 19 Palestinians 12 of them children killed in Israeli strikes on Friday and overnight.
One strike hit a residential building in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least seven, including five children and one woman, and injuring 16 others, health officials said.
In Gaza City, a strike on a house killed 12, including seven children and two women, according to Al-Ahli Hospital where the bodies were taken. One man cradled a tiny shroud-wrapped body as mourners gathered.
Later on Saturday, al-Awda Hospital said an airstrike hit a house in Nuseirat and killed four people including two children, with 14 other people wounded. Israel’s military said it was checking the report.