A Houthi missile launched from Yemen injured more than a dozen people in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area early Saturday, after sirens sounded across central Israel.
At least 16 people were hurt, according to Israeli emergency services. The injuries were minor, such as cuts from glass shards. The Israel Defense Forces said attempts to intercept the projectile were unsuccessful, and that the missile hit a playground.
One resident told The Washington Post the strike had happened so quickly she didn’t have time to run to the bomb shelter, and that she pulled a heavy blanket over herself that shielded her from the glass as her windows shattered.
“I’m very lucky,” Irena Brodesky, 35, said, adding she was treated for cuts on her head and fingers. “If the missile had been like one meter [closer], not in a hole in the ground but in this house, I wouldn’t have survived.”
The attack came a day after Israeli warplanes hit targets belonging to Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The retaliatory strike was in response to a missile fired from Yemen on the prior day, which damaged a school in a Tel Aviv suburb.
The Israeli airstrike in Yemen killed at least nine people, according to Houthi media reports. No one was hurt at the Israeli school.
The Houthis claimed responsibility for the strike, saying in a statement that they targeted Jaffa with a hypersonic ballistic missile. In several social media posts, Hezam al-Asad, a member of the Houthi political bureau in Yemen, celebrated the failed interception and said that the Houthis’ military actions are legal and intended to stop Israel’s operations in Gaza.
