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Houthis fire a missile at Tel Aviv; Israeli strikes kill several children in Gaza

The ballistic missile, named “Palestine 2,” landed in Tel Aviv’s Jaffa district, according to the Israeli military. Houthi rebels said the attack was in response to “the massacres against our brothers in Gaza.”
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A missile launched from Yemen struck Tel Aviv early Saturday in a rare instance of a failed interception over the city.

The attack came just hours after seven children were killed in northern Gaza on Friday when Israeli airstrikes struck a house in Jabaliya, the Palestinian Civil Defense said, as Israel continues its offensive after 15 months of war that has spilled over into the region.

Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv's Jaffa district as a missile landed in the area after interception attempts failed, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

No deaths were reported, but Israel’s emergency services said it was treating 14 people in “mild condition” after they were injured by glass shards. Israeli police said property damage had also occurred. 

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi forces claimed responsibility, announcing they had launched a hypersonic ballistic missile named “Palestine 2” at an Israeli military site in the Jaffa area.

Image: ISRAEL-YEMEN-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT
The crater left by a Houthi missile fired on Tel Aviv on Saturday.Jack Guez / AFP - Getty Images

“The missile hit its target accurately and the defense and interception systems failed to intercept it,” the Houthis said in a statement Saturday morning, adding that the attack was in response to “the massacres against our brothers in Gaza.”

Hamas praised the strike in a statement shortly afterward.

On Friday, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 25 people in Gaza, according to Reuters, citing health officials.

Dr. Muneer Alboursh, the director general of health in Gaza, said an attack on a house in Jabaliya in northern Gaza killed 12 people, "most of them children and a woman." He called the attack a "bloody massacre" and said the bombing had injured several other people.

Israeli attacks have killed 45,000 people in Gaza since the war started 15 months ago, most of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials. The conflict was sparked when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage.

Image: PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT
A wounded Palestinian woman bids farewell to her child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, as she lies in a bed at Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City on Saturday.Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP - Getty Images
Image: PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT
A man carries the shrouded body of a child killed in an Israeli strike the previous night at a funeral in Jabalia.Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP - Getty Images

Israel has been trading retaliatory strikes with Houthi rebels since the war began.

However, nearly all Houthi missiles have been intercepted over the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest waterways, where the group has also targeted commercial vessels.

In September, nine people were injured running to shelters after a ballistic missile launched from Yemen crossed into Israel, landing in an open field outside Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv, Israel’s second-largest city, is the country’s commercial and diplomatic hub. Direct impacts on the city from incoming projectiles are uncommon, thanks to Israel’s usually robust air defense systems.

On Thursday, the IDF said a school near Tel Aviv was damaged after the “partial interception” of a missile launched from Yemen.

Later that day, it said Israel had launched strikes against "military targets" on Yemen's western coast and inland, including "fuel and oil tanks, two power plants, and eight tugboats."