Netanyahu vows ‘heavy price’ for Houthis after missile hits central Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Yemen’s Houthi rebels will pay a “heavy price” after a missile fired by the group landed in central Israel early Sunday.

The Israeli Defense Forces said the missile hit an unpopulated area, causing some damage but no injuries.

The attack is the first time a missile fired by the Houthis has reached that far, roughly 2,000 kilometers from Yemen. The Israeli army said an investigation will examine how the missile could have reached the center of the country without being intercepted by its air defenses.

The Houthis said the operation involved a new type of hypersonic missile, which could explain why Israeli efforts to shoot the weapon down were unsuccessful.

The armed group, which claims to belong to an Iran-led “axis of resistance” against Israel and its Western allies, said on Sunday that the attack was carried out “in solidarity with the Palestinians,” and that Israel should brace for more ahead of Oct. 7, the one-year anniversary of the Hamas group’s massacre in Israel that kicked off the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

The Houthis “should have known by now that we exact a heavy price for any attempt to harm us,” Netanyahu said. “Anyone who attacks us will not escape from our arms.”

The last time the group hit Israel, a July attack that killed one and injured eight in Tel Aviv, the Israel army retaliated with a deadly strike against the city of Hodeidah in Yemen.