Moments after Israel was announced as the second-place winner in the Eurovision Song Contest in the early hours of Sunday morning, air raid sirens blared across central and coastal regions following the detection of a missile launch from Yemen. The missile was successfully intercepted, and no injuries were reported.
The alerts were triggered in several areas throughout the country. According to the IDF, “following the alerts that were activated shortly ago in multiple areas across the country, one missile launched from Yemen was intercepted. The alerts were triggered according to policy.” A few minutes earlier, the IDF had identified the missile launch and activated its defense systems to intercept the threat.
Magen David Adom (MDA) reported that “following the sirens that were heard in the last few minutes in central Israel, no emergency calls were received at MDA’s 101 hotline, except for a single case of a young man injured on his way to a shelter in Bat Yam.” No other injuries were reported. Updates will be issued if needed.
Israel Police conducted sweeps to locate any missile debris or impact sites in the region.
Sirens sound as Yuval Raphael takes second place in Eurovision
Emergency services organization United Hatzalah added that “following the sirens heard in the Shfela, Central, and Dan regions—so far there are no reports of casualties or impact sites. Further updates will be issued if necessary.”
The timing of the alerts—interrupting a rare moment of national celebration—coincided precisely with the announcement of the Eurovision winner, at this year’s contest in Basel, Switzerland.
The attacks came after the IDF struck the Hodeidah and Al-Salif ports in Yemen on Friday. The sirens mark the fifth missile launch from Yemen in the past week, though one missile fell short and landed in Saudi Arabia.
The military said that the ports that were struck are used to transfer weapons and are “another example of the cynical use and exploitation of civilian infrastructure by the Houthi terrorist regime to advance terrorism.”
According to IDF estimates, the bombings will likely put these ports out of operational use for at least a month.
The military said it conducted the strikes after multiple prior warnings.
“Given the Houthis’ use of these ports for terrorist purposes, the IDF again warns anyone present at the ports to evacuate and stay away from the area,” an IDF statement said. “Any hostile activity in these ports will continue to be prevented.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the IDF had “severely damaged” the ports it attacked in Yemen, and threatened to hunt down Houthi political leaders in a statement on X/Twitter.
“As we said, if the Houthis continue to fire missiles toward the State of Israel, they will suffer painful blows – and we will also target terror leaders as we have done with [Hamas military leader Mohammad] Deif and the Sinwars [brothers] in Gaza, [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah in Beirut, and [Hamas political leader Ismail] Haniyeh in Tehran. We will hunt down and eliminate [Yemenite political and religious leader] Abdul-Malik al-Houthi in Yemen as well," he wrote.
“We will defend ourselves by our own strength against any enemy."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that more attacks would come for the Houthis in a statement on X/Twitter.
"We are not willing to sit idly by and allow the Houthis to harm us. We will strike them much harder, including their leadership and all the infrastructure that enables them to harm us," he wrote.
Amichai Stein, Yonah Jeremy Bob, and Darcie Grunblatt contributed to this report.