The Houthis in Yemen launched a drone that crossed into Israeli territory and crashed in an open area near the Gaza border, the IDF announced Wednesday evening.
Sirens sounded in Ashkelon and communities on the Gaza border between 5:26 and 5:27 p.m.
This was the second time on Wednesday that the IDF intercepted a missile fired from the Iranian proxy group.
Early Wednesday, the military intercepted a projectile fired toward central Israel. It triggered a wave of sirens throughout the Center and South.
Ten people were injured while seeking shelter during the sirens or who required treatment due to anxiety.All flights from Ben-Gurion Airport were temporarily delayed.
“Run to the shelters,” Houthi official Hezam al-Asad posted on X/Twitter 15 minutes after the projectile was launched.
“We have warned you many times to stop killing the children of Gaza!”
יירוט הטיל מתימן | תיעוד@hadasgrinberg צילום: שימוש לפי סעיף 27א pic.twitter.com/qgnUwKNBCY
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) December 25, 2024
"We have warned you many times to stop killing the children of Gaza!"
Sirens sounded in early morning hours
Interceptor fragments fell on the house of Mor Steinberg-Golan, a 24-year-old resident of Be’er Ya’acov.
In an interview with Walla, she described the moment she noticed interceptor fragments in her house’s yard immediately after the sirens sounded in the early morning hours,
According to Steinberg-Golan, she and her family were in the bomb shelter when the alarm sounded, and they remained in their shelter for a few more minutes, to ensure their safety.
“We didn’t believe it was close to us. We stayed in the bomb shelter for a few more minutes to be safe,” she said.
“After a few minutes, we left the bomb shelter and saw the interceptor fragments waiting for us in the yard of the house. It was very frightening because we didn’t know exactly what had happened.”
She added that the fragments fell near her window, near the bomb shelter. “They hit the wall of our house; the air conditioner was torn off, and the yard was half broken.”
According to her, it was “very close,” and the danger was visible. “If we hadn’t entered the bomb shelter, it could have ended in disaster. This emphasizes the importance of staying in a protected area, especially late at night when everyone wants to go back to sleep,” she explained.
After identifying the fragments of the interception, Steinberg-Golan called the police, and security forces and municipal teams were called to the scene.
“The police cleared the fragments of the interception by hand from our yard,” she said. “They told us to wait until the place was cleared, out of fear that the materials in the fragments of the interception might explode again.”
Steinberg-Golan’s cousin, Meital Merhav, 29, who arrived in Israel less than a week ago from New Jersey for a two-week family visit, has already experienced three nightly alarms following missile launches from Yemen.
“This is a shock. This whole thing about alarms is new to me. Luckily, I slept in the emergency room,” Merhav recalled, adding, “The family is fine. We couldn’t believe it fell here in the yard. No one imagines something like this. We went outside, opened the door, and saw it was there. Luckily, it only ended with property damage. It was a traumatic experience. I’m glad everyone is okay.”
The morning attack came barely 24 hours after the last ballistic missile, which was launched by the Houthis on Tuesday morning, and left a 60-year-old woman in severe condition after suffering from a head injury on her way to a shelter.
Additionally, on Saturday, 16 people in Tel Aviv were lightly wounded by glass shards after a Houthi rocket fired from Yemen slammed into Jaffa.
“For the fifth time in a week, millions of Israelis were sent to shelter as Houthi terrorists in Yemen launched a missile attack,” the IDF wrote on X.
Shortly after the siren, Nissim Gozlan, the mayor of Beersheba, posted on his Facebook account that a missile fragment had been located in a private yard in the center of the city, and no one was hurt.