Israel says it intercepted two missiles launched from Yemen

By Hatem Maher, Yomna Ehab and Enas Alashray

(Reuters) -Israel's military said it intercepted two missiles launched from Yemen on Thursday, days after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would hold Iran responsible for any attacks carried out by the Houthi group that it backs in Yemen.

The military said it downed a missile launched from Yemen after sirens blared in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Warning sirens also sounded in Jerusalem and the nearby Israeli-occupied West Bank after a second missile was later fired in the day, the military said, adding it was intercepted before it entered Israeli territory.

Israel's national ambulance service Magen David Adom said it received no reports of casualties after the two launches.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis claimed responsibility for two missile attacks. The group has been undeterred by waves of U.S. strikes that began on Saturday in response to Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping.

They fired a ballistic missile toward Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, the group's military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a televised statement on Thursday.

They also fired a "hypersonic" missile named "Palestine 2" at an Israeli military site in southern Jaffa, a city in central Israel, that "reached its target", Saree said early on Friday.

The group has recently vowed to escalate attacks, including those targeting Israel, in response to the U.S. strikes, which amount to the biggest U.S. military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January. The U.S. attacks have killed at least 50 people.

Yemen's Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV reported at least four U.S. strikes on the Al Mina district of the Red Sea city of Hodeidah on Thursday, an area which houses a major port and the headquarters of Houthi naval forces.

Al Masirah reported another strike on the Al-Safra district of Saada which, according to Yemeni sources, houses weapons storage and training sites, and is considered one of the group's most important and heavily fortified military strongholds.

Trump threatened on Monday to hold Iran accountable for any future Houthi attacks, warning of severe consequences. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the Houthis are independent and take their own strategic and operational decisions.

On Tuesday, the Houthis said they had fired a ballistic missile towards Israel and would expand their range of targets in that country in coming days in retaliation for renewed Israeli airstrikes in Gaza after weeks of relative calm.

The Houthis have carried out over 100 attacks on shipping since Israel's war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza's Palestinians.

The attacks have disrupted global commerce and prompted the U.S. military to launch a costly campaign to intercept missiles.

The Houthis are part of what has been dubbed the "Axis of Resistance" - an anti-Israel and anti-Western alliance of regional militias including Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah and armed groups in Iraq, all backed by Iran.

(Reporting by Hatem Maher, Yomna Ehab, Enas Alashray and Muhammad Al Gebaly; editing by Kim Coghill, Michael Perry, Lincoln Feast, Mark Heinrich and Nia Williams)