Netanyahu warns Yemen’s Houthis face a ‘heavy price’ as missile lands in central Israel

By Dana Karni, Jessie Yeung, Tim Lister and Rosa Rahimi, CNN

(CNN) — Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Yemen’s Houthis face a “heavy price” after the group fired a missile deep into Israel.

The projectile was fired from Yemen toward Israel at 6am local time on Sunday, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who added that it “most likely fragmented in mid-air.” The missile fell in an open area in central Israel, with no injuries reported.

Videos and images shared by the Israel Fire and Rescue Authority on Telegram show large plumes of smoke billowing into the air over an open field, and shattered glass inside a train station in Modi’in, a city between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

A spokesman for the Iran-backed Houthis military spokesman confirmed the attack, claiming that the group used a “new hypersonic ballistic missile” and warning that Israel should expect more such strikes as the first anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas approaches. The IDF told CNN that the projectile was not a hypersonic missile.

Despite months of tensions it is a rare instance of a missile penetrating as far as central Israel, normally safe for civilians.

“We are in a multi-arena campaign against Iran’s evil axis that strives to destroy us,” said Netanyahu, speaking ahead of a cabinet meeting.

“They should have known by now that we exact a heavy price for any attempt to harm us,” he added, referencing the Israeli attack on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah in July which followed a deadly drone attack on Tel Aviv.

Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, commended the strike in a public letter to Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement, saying it “sent a message to the enemy that the plans of containment and neutralization have failed.”

The letter emphasized Hamas’ readiness for a prolonged conflict, vowing that combined efforts with the Houthis, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and other regional actors would ultimately break Israel’s political and military strength.

Israeli police said they were working with the police bomb squad in the Shfela area, also known as the Judaean Foothills, where an interceptor fragment had fallen. Authorities are now isolating the impact site and scanning for additional interceptor remains, police said.

Sirens rang across central and northern Israel, the military said, and sirens were also sounded at Tel Aviv airport, the airport’s spokesperson told CNN. Videos on social media showed passengers running to find shelter.

On Monday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a news conference in Tehran that Iran hasn’t provided the Houthis with hypersonic missiles.

“They have the technology, they learned it even before this war started. They are producing them themselves,” Pezeshkian said.

Iran unveiled its first hypersonic missile last year, boasting that it can reach Tel Aviv in 400 seconds.

Also on Sunday morning, approximately 40 projectiles crossed from Lebanon into Israel’s northern region, some of them intercepted and others falling in open areas, the IDF said. No injuries were reported, and authorities are putting out fires caused by the fallen projectiles.

Hezbollah has been firing almost daily barrages of projectiles and drones into Israel. “The existing reality will not continue,” said Netanyahu, adding that a “change in the balance of power” is needed at the northern border to ensure residents could return home.

The IDF meanwhile opened an investigation following reports that leaflets were dropped in southern Lebanon warning civilians to leave.

The leaflets, written in Arabic and found in the area of Wazzani, a village within a few kilometers of the border with Israel, told residents that Hezbollah was firing from their area and that they should “not come back to this area until the end of the war.”

The IDF said in a statement Sunday that the disperal of leaflets was “an independent initiative of the 769th Brigade in the Northern Command,” and was not approved by the IDF’s high command.

Fears of escalation

Tensions between Israel, Yemen and Lebanon have been escalating for months as Israel has waged its war on Hamas in Gaza after the militant group’s October 7 attacks. World leaders have warned of the potential for a wider Middle East conflict.

Since the war began, the Iran-backed Houthi group, which controls Yemen’s most populous regions, has regularly targeted Israel with drones and missiles. Most of these have been intercepted by Israel’s defenses or those of its allies.

It has also targeted shipping in the Red Sea, as a rejection of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Most notably in July, the group claimed responsibility for a deadly drone attack in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial center – the first time the city has been struck by a Houthi drone.

Israel struck back the next day with deadly airstrikes on a Yemeni port – the first such strike on Yemen, according to Israeli officials.

The Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon has also carried out attacks on northern Israel, sending rockets and drones on Saturday targeting Israeli military sites.

These direct attacks on each other’s soil have raised alarm that there could be a new front in the ongoing conflict, which is already threatening to spill over across the region.

Israel launched its war in Gaza after the militant group Hamas’ cross-border October 7 attacks, in which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

Since then, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military operations in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the enclave. The health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its figures, but says most of the dead are women and children.

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CNN’s Rosa Rahimi and Lauren Izso contributed to this report.