Yemen’s Houthis say they fired two missiles at central Israel, Israel says missile intercepted

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday they fired two missiles at Jaffa, a city in central Israel, and Israel said it intercepted a missile aimed at the area from Yemen.

The Israeli military said a surface-to-surface missile set off air raid sirens across central Israel, sending residents running for shelter.

“Following the sirens that sounded in a number of areas in central Israel, the surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen was successfully intercepted” by the Israeli Air Force, the military said in a statement.

The statement did not say who fired the missile.

The Houthis said one missile was a Palestine 2 and it “reached” its target. The group said the second was a Dhu al-Fiqar missile but did not describe its outcome.

The Yemeni group said the operation “successfully achieved its objectives” and it targeted several drones at Jaffa and Eilat.

Israel only mentioned the intercepted surface-to-surface missile, without referring to the drones or a second missile.

The Iran-backed Houthi movement which controls northern Yemen has frequently attacked Israel over the past year in what it says is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Jaidaa Taha, Adam Makary and Mohamed Ghobari; Editing by Gareth Jones, Peter Graff and Cynthia Osterman)