At least 20 injured after drone strike on Eilat, Israel’s national ambulance service says

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(Reuters) -At least 20 people were injured on Wednesday after a drone launched from Yemen hit Israel’s Red Sea resort city of Eilat on the border with Jordan and Egypt, the Israeli national ambulance service Magen David Adom said.

It said two people were seriously injured while others sustained medium to light injuries.

The Israeli military said a drone launched from Yemen fell in Eilat, adding only that interception attempts were made.

The newspaper Israel Hayom said citing an initial investigation that air defence systems failed to intercept the drone.

The drone attack on Wednesday comes days after Iran-backed Houthis fired a drone that crashed in Eilat’s hotel zone, resulting in material damage but no casualties.

The Houthis have been launching missiles and drones thousands of kilometres north towards Israel, in what the group says are acts of solidarity with the Palestinians. Most of the dozens of missiles and drones launched have been intercepted or fallen short of Israeli territory.

Israel has retaliated by bombing Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, including the vital Hodeidah port.

The Houthis, who control the most populous parts of Yemen, have also been attacking vessels in the Red Sea since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din, Ahmed Elimam and Yomna Ehab; Writing by Menna Alaa El-Din; Editing by Hugh Lawson)