Yemen’s Houthis having a hypersonic missile?
And Israel failed to intercept? Netanyahu is threatening massive retaliation. Admittedly this news took me by surprise today!!
A few excerpt from the links below
Netanyahu vows to exact heavy price from houthis for missile attack
Houthi missiles reach central Israel for first time
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would inflict a “heavy price” on the Iran-aligned Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they reached central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time.
advertisementHouthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the group struck with a new hypersonic ballistic missile that traveled 2,040 km (1270 miles) in just 11 1/2 minutes.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Yemen’s Houthi rebels will pay a “heavy price” after a ballistic missile struck central Israel for the first time on Sunday. A Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the hypersonic ballistic missile travelled 1,270 miles in just over 11 minutes. Sarea said the rebel group was targeting a “military target” in the Tel Aviv area. The Israeli military said it made several attempts to intercept the missile, but had not yet determined whether they were successful.
It added that the missile appeared to have fragmented mid-air. Responding to the incident, Netanyahu said: “The Houthis should have known by now that we exact a heavy price for any attempt to harm us… Anyone who needs a reminder is invited to visit the port of Hodeidah.” He was referring to an Israeli air strike against Yemen in July for a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv.
Sunday’s incident is believed to be the first time a surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen has reached Israel.
Houthi spokesman Nasruddin Amer said the weapon used was a “new hypersonic ballistic missile” that “the enemy’s defence systems failed to intercept and confront”.
He added: “It crossed a distance of 2,040km in 11-and-a-half minutes, and caused a state of fear and panic among the Zionists, as more than two million Zionists headed to shelters for the first time in the history of the Israeli enemy…
“The geographical challenges, the American-British aggression, and the monitoring, espionage and interception systems will not prevent beloved Yemen from performing its religious, moral and humanitarian duty in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
Jerusalem Post
The surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen into central Israel on Sunday morning had the longest range Israel has seen to date, former IDF Air Defense commander Brig.-Gen. Zvika Haimovich (res.) told 103FM later that day.
“What I understand, from the details I know right now, is that the incident under investigation is about a long-range missile from Yemen, probably the longest of what we have experienced so far from Yemen, and it is not the first,” Haimovich said. “We have seen them in the Eilat area, too.
“The missile, in its relatively early flight, was constantly under detection and being monitored,” he continued. “For a range of over 1,600-1,700 km., it takes 13-15 minutes, which is a very long time. The warning time for a resident [of central Israel] is a minute and a half, no matter where it comes from. Attempts were made to intercept the missile.”
He explained that the multiple explosions heard in Tel Aviv and surrounding cities were from the interceptors being launched, not from multiple missiles being fired at Israel.
“Was the missile hit by our interceptor, or did it disintegrate in the air?” he asked rhetorically. “It is too early to know. What is certain is that this threatening missile did not reach its target and fell into open areas in the end. Is that because it was hit by our interceptions, or did it fall apart in midair? That is what they must continue to investigate.”