Militants believed to be Houthi rebels fired a medium-range ballistic missile from Yemen toward Israel on Tuesday, according to US officials.
The Israeli army said in a statement that the Israeli “Arrow” air defense system intercepted the missile, which was jointly developed by Israel and the United States. The Israeli army confirmed that a surface-to-ground missile was launched towards Israeli territory from the direction of the Red Sea, but it did not specify whether it came from Yemen.
US officials said the missile, which has a range of 2,000 kilometers (about 1,240 miles) or more, did not threaten US Navy ships in the Red Sea, US forces or personnel in the region.
A Defense Department spokesman said that on October 19, a US Navy warship shot down several drones and three cruise missiles that were launched from Yemen and were heading “possibly toward Israel.”
The USS Carney was in the northern Red Sea when it shot down the missiles and more than a dozen drones.
Israel said Tuesday was the first time the Arrow system had intercepted a missile since the war began earlier this month. The Israeli army added that Israeli fighter planes took off on Tuesday morning to the Red Sea to intercept unspecified “air threats” outside Israeli territory.
A military spokesman for the Houthis, an Iranian-backed Shiite rebel group in Yemen, said in a post on X on Tuesday that the Houthis “fired a large number of ballistic and cruise missiles” at Israeli targets.
He wrote that the group “will continue to carry out more qualitative attacks with missiles and drones” until the Israeli “aggression” against the Palestinians in Gaza ends.
Yemen is located just over 900 miles south of Israel and Saudi Arabia is located in the middle. The likely path of a missile fired from Yemen towards Israel would pass over parts of Saudi Arabia and then the Red Sea before reaching southern Israel.
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