A ballistic missile launched at Israel by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen was intercepted by air defenses on Tuesday evening, the Israeli military said, in what has become an almost daily occurrence.
The missile attack came hours after Israeli Navy corvettes struck the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida, in response to the Iran-backed group’s repeated attacks on Israel.
The missile fired at Israel on Tuesday broke up into multiple parts after being hit by an interceptor, leading the Israeli Air Force to launch additional interceptors to shoot down the fragments, a military official told The Times of Israel.
At least seven interceptors were seen launched.
In the past, intact warheads from partially intercepted Houthi missiles have fallen to the ground and caused harm.
The Iran-backed Houthis took responsibility for the attack, claiming to have launched two ballistic missiles at Ben Gurion Airport in central Israel. The second missile apparently fell short or broke up in the air, as several Houthi projectiles have in recent weeks.
The attack triggered sirens shortly before 8 p.m. across central Israel, the Jerusalem area, southern West Bank settlements, and some areas in southern Israel. Preceding the sirens by two minutes, an early warning was issued to residents, alerting civilians of the long-range missile attack via a push notification on their phones.
The Israel Defense Forces issued a statement on the incoming attack some five minutes before sirens sounded.
There were no reports of injuries in the attack. Debris from the intercepted missile or the interceptors landed near Jerusalem and in the West Bank, causing no major damage.
On Tuesday morning, in its first-ever strike on Yemen, the Israeli Navy destroyed infrastructure at the port of Hodeida with two guided missiles launched from advanced Sa’ar 6-class corvettes hundreds of kilometers away.
It was the 11th Israeli strike on the Houthis since the start of the conflict, with the previous 10 all having been carried out by the Air Force.
The Houthis — whose slogan calls for “Death to America, Death to Israel, [and] a Curse on the Jews” — began attacking Israel and maritime traffic in November 2023, a month after the October 7 Hamas massacre.
The Houthis held their fire when a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Hamas in January 2025. By that point, they had fired over 40 ballistic missiles and dozens of attack drones and cruise missiles at Israel, including one that killed a civilian and wounded several others in Tel Aviv in July, prompting Israel’s first strike in Yemen.
Since March 18, when the IDF resumed its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis have launched 48 ballistic missiles and at least 11 drones at Israel. Several of the missiles have fallen short.