A missile fired by Yemen’s Houthis exploded in a public park in Jaffa, south Tel Aviv, overnight Friday-Saturday after attempts to intercept it failed.
Medics said 16 people were lightly injured by shattered glass, including a three-year-old girl, while 14 were bruised while rushing to shelters.
Footage from the park showed a crater where the missile had impacted.
The missile launch caused sirens to sound throughout central Israel at 3:44 a.m., sending millions rushing to shelters from their beds.
It was the second time in as many days that a Houthi missile sparked sirens in the country’s center in the middle of the night.
The military confirmed that a missile originating in Yemen impacted in Tel Aviv, saying “attempted interceptions did not succeed.”
It said details of the event were being looked into.
Videos on social media showed the moment of impact and the failed interceptions.
A video showed the impact site in the park in Tel Aviv.
Footage also showed exploded windows and debris in several surrounding apartments, apparently as a result of the shockwave.
On Thursday, a drone was intercepted off the Tel Aviv coast and on Monday a missile triggered sirens across the country.
The latest missile attack from Yemen came only two days after the last one, and after the Israeli Air Force carried out a major strike on the country.
Early on Thursday morning, a Houthi projectile was partially intercepted outside Israeli airspace by air defenses. However, the warhead didn’t explode in the air and crashed into an empty school building in the city of Ramat Gan, causing severe damage but no injuries.
Shortly afterwards, the IDF carried out intense airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen (the operation had been planned for weeks, with the planes already in the air when the missile was launched). Dozens of planes struck Houthi targets along Yemen’s western coast and, for the first time, in the rebel-held capital Sana’a,
Fourteen fighter jets, alongside refuelers and spy planes, flew some 2,000 kilometers and dropped over 60 munitions on Houthi military targets, the IDF said.
Israeli military sources said the strikes in Yemen were aimed at paralyzing all three ports used by the Iran-backed group. The targets included fuel and oil depots, two power stations, and eight tugboats used at the Houthi-controlled ports.
All tugboats used to bring ships into ports were struck in the Israeli attack, as were power stations. A previous attack on the Hodeida port targeted cranes used to unload shipments.
Israel now believes that all activity at the ports controlled by the Houthis is paralyzed, sources said Thursday.
The military, which released videos of the strikes and the aerial refueling amid the operation, called the destruction of the targets a major blow to the military operations of the Houthis.
Houthi rebels have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel, with most being shot down but some managing to reach the country and cause death and destruction. Thursday’s strikes marked Israel’s third counterattack on areas in Yemen held by the rebel group.
The Houthis began their attacks following Hamas’s October 7 massacre in Israel, seeking to add pressure on Israel, along with other Iran-aligned groups such as Hezbollah. The Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles and 170 drones at Israel in the past year. According to the IDF, the vast majority did not reach Israel or were intercepted by the military and Israeli allies in the region.
The group has also carried out repeated missile and drone attacks on some 100 merchant vessels attempting to traverse the Red Sea, forcing many carriers to avoid the key waterway and hamstringing global shipping.
After Thursday’s strikes in Yemen, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the rebel group was among the last Iranian proxies still active “after Hamas, Hezbollah and the Assad regime in Syria.” The Houthis, he said, “are learning and they will learn the hard way that anyone who attacks Israel pays a very heavy price.”
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