Netanyahu vows Houthis will pay 'heavy price' for missile attack on Israel

Israeli military investigating apparent failure of its air defence system to intercept hypersonic projectile

Police bomb disposal specialists in central Israel examine shrapnel on Sunday after the attack. EPA

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would inflict a "heavy price" on the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen, after they reached central Israel with a missile for the first time on Sunday.

The group claimed responsibility for the hypersonic ballistic missile attack on central Israel, praising it for causing “fear and panic” throughout the country.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said the attack was aimed at a military target in Tel Aviv and “forced more than two million Zionists to run to shelters for the first time in the enemy’s history”. The missile “crossed a distance of 2,040km in 11 and a half minutes,” he added.

Mr Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting on Sunday, according to a statement from his office: "This morning, the Houthis launched a surface-to-surface missile from Yemen into our territory. They should have known by now that we charge a heavy price for any attempt to harm us.

"Whoever needs a reminder of that is invited to visit the Hodeida port," he added, referring to an retaliatory air strike on Yemen in July for a Houthi drone that hit Tel Aviv.

Israel's military confirmed a hit on the centre of the country on Sunday morning but said it happened in "open land" near Lod and that no injuries were reported. Sirens were activated throughout central Israel and the attack rang alarm bells in security circles after the country’s sophisticated air defence systems appear to have failed to intercept the projectile.

"During the event, several interception attempts were made by the 'Hats' and 'Iron Dome' systems, the results of which are under review. Alerts were activated according to policy. The whole incident is being investigated," the army said on X.

Yoel Guzansky, a senior researcher at Israeli think tank, the Institute for National Security Studies, told The National the attack was “a big deal”. He added: “It appears to have penetrated Israel’s very sophistical missile defence systems and it shows that the Houthis continue to launch attacks just months after Israel attacked Hodeidah."

Mr Guzansky also described the attack as a "weapon of terror". "For a little while they achieved such terror as so many Israelis ran for shelter this morning," he added.

Israel's military said: “The result of the interception is under review." Social media showed shrapnel from failed interceptions scattered throughout the region, causing limited damage.

INSS senior researcher Yehoshua Kalisky, a missile expert who witnessed the attack, said the fire he saw was caused by "debris of not only the missile but also interceptor rounds".

"This was probably a regular Iranian ballistic missile. Israeli air defence layers do not have an 100 per cent success rate," he added. "The main issue is that the missile itself decomposed in the air, which is why it proved impossible to intercept over Israel."

The Houthis have been attacking Israeli targets and international shipping in nearby waters throughout the Gaza war. Israel launched a heavy strike on Hodeidah in July, which killed nine people after a Houthi attack killed one in Tel Aviv.

"The Israeli enemy should expect more strikes and specific operations including responding to its criminal aggression on the port city of Hodeidah," the Houthi statement on Sunday said ahead of the war's first anniversary on October 7.

The attack comes as Israeli forces battle fires in the north of the country after heavy barrages from Lebanese militant group Hezbollah over the weekend.

A senior Hamas official told AFP on Sunday that the Houthi attack "is a message to the entire region that Israel is not an immune entity".

"Even Israeli capabilities have limits, and the possibility of developing resistance action against the Zionist entity is a serious and real possibility, not a fantasy," said Osama Hamdan.