Houthi Missile Lands Direct Hit in Tel Aviv Amid Tit-for-Tat Attacks - Photos

Houthi Missile Lands Direct Hit in Tel Aviv Amid Tit-for-Tat Attacks - Photos

Sputnik

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Thursday morning's Israeli airstrikes across Yemen a message “that whoever harms Israel will pay a very heavy price.” Houthi fighters announced the same day that they’d targeted military sites in Tel Aviv with a pair of Palestine-2 missiles.

The Houthis launched hypersonic missiles toward the internationally-recognized Israeli capital of Tel Aviv on Thursday, “simultaneously with Israeli aggression on civilian facilities in the [Yemeni] capital, Sanaa, and Hodeidah province, including power stations,” the militia said in a statement on Thursday.

The missile strikes were well within Yemen’s “natural and legitimate” right to respond to Israeli aggression, the fighters added.

The operation “successfully achieved its objectives,” the militia said, emphasizing that Israeli attacks would “not deter Yemen and the Yemenis from performing their religious and moral duty in responding to [Israel’s] massacres in the Gaza Strip.”

“The operations of the Yemeni armed forces will not stop until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted,” the statement said.

Also on Thursday, Houthi Ministry of Information advisor Tawfiq al-Humairi said Yemen is “in a state of conflict with the Israeli regime,” and would “target” Israel’s “electricity and oil infrastructure" in a tit-for-tat manner "in retaliation for the early morning attacks.”

Israeli media reported Thursday that a multistory school building had been hit by a “partially intercepted” Houthi ballistic missile, causing 40 million shekels ($11 million US) in damage, resulting in severe, irreparable damage to the building and destroying parked cars in the area. No one was hurt in the Houthi attack, local authorities said.

The Israeli strikes reportedly saw jets flying some 2,000 km and dropping over 60 bombs on Yemen.

Regional media said the Israeli attacks on Yemen had killed nine people, seven at the port of al-Salif and two at the Ras Isa oil facility.

Israel has been previously known to target Yemeni civilian infrastructure in response to Houthi drone and missile attacks, which the militia has promised to continue until the war in Gaza ends.