Houthis claim ballistic missile attack on southern Israel

Yemen's Houthi group announced Saturday that it had launched a ballistic missile targeting a "sensitive" site in southern Israel, activating air defense sirens in Israel for the first time since a ceasefire for the Israel-Iran conflict went into effect on Tuesday.

The strike, using a Zulfiqar ballistic missile, had "successfully hit its target," Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised statement aired by the group's al-Masirah TV channel.

Saree added that earlier in the week, Houthi forces carried out "several military operations" targeting "sensitive" sites and military facilities in three Israeli cities: Beer Sheva, Jaffa (Tel Aviv), and Haifa, using a number of ballistic missiles and drones. All of the operations, he said, were "successfully executed."

He said the operations were "a form of support for the oppressed Palestinian people," vowing that the group would continue its "supportive military operations until the aggression on Gaza ceases and the blockade is lifted."

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israel on Saturday morning was "most likely successfully intercepted."

Israel's national emergency service, Magen David Adom, said that there were no immediate reports of hits or casualties, reports Xinhua.

Following the launch, air defense sirens sounded across large areas of southern Israel, including the cities of Beer Sheva and Dimona as well as the Dead Sea region, sending hundreds of thousands of residents to shelters.