(Reuters) -At least 20 people were injured on Wednesday after a drone launched from Yemen hit a hotel in 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 […]
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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 a hotel in 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. It later said that the attack targeted a hotel in the city.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the mayor of Eilat that he discussed with the Israeli military command ways to improve response to aerial threats on the city.
The newspaper Israel Hayom, citing an initial investigation, said that air defence systems failed to intercept the drone.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi group claimed responsibility for the drone attack, saying its attack was the second against Israel in the past 24 hours.
Shortly after the attack, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X that Houthis “refuse to learn from Iran, Lebanon and Gaza and they will learn the hard way”.
The drone attack on Wednesday comes days after 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 toward 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 and Diane Craft)