Houthi ballistic missile hits central Israel, sparking blaze

The IDF is investigating why the Arrow system did not neutralize the threat before it reached Israeli airspace.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A Houthi missile was fired at central Israel Sunday morning, hitting an open area near Lod after possibly being partly intercepted by Israel’s aerial defense.

Shrapnel from the incoming missile caused a fire in an open area about four kilometers from Lod. Firefighters were still battling a blaze near Moshav Kfar Daniel as of 9 AM, with no danger expected to the houses of the community.

No one was directly hurt by the huge missile or the interceptors fired at it, but five people were evacuated to hospitals with light injuries as a result of their attempted dashes to safety when the warning sirens went off at 6:30 AM.

The sirens sent 2.3 million residents in parts of the greater Tel Aviv area, the coastal plain and some of Judea and Samaria running to their safe rooms or taking cover while on the roads.

The warning also sounded at Ben Gurion Airport, where passengers could be seen in videos online moving quickly but calmly through the corridors toward protected areas.

It is possible that the airport was the Iranian proxy’s target, given that Lod is the city closest to the air hub.

It was the first time in months that the central region heard the wailing of sirens, which the residents of the north hear almost every day, several times a day, due to Hezbollah’s constant launches of rockets and UAVs.

It is not sure as yet if the projectile was at least partly shot down by an Arrow 2 missile, one of several the IDF fired after it was already over Israeli territory.

The Iron Dome defense system was also reportedly activated, in order to destroy larger pieces of the falling missile that also posed a threat to life.

Parts of the intercepting rockets fell in populated areas. One fragment hit a train station in Modi’in, with photos from the site showing shattered glass at the bottom of one of the escalators.

The police closed off the area, and instituted a search for any other fragments that could pose a danger.

The IDF is investigating why its Arrow 3 rockets did not neutralize the threat before it reached Israeli airspace.

According to a Ynet report, the IDF is also investigating whether the threat was a cruise or ballistic missile. Ballistic missiles are much faster, covering the 2,000 kilometers from Yemen in 15 minutes, but this is still ample time for it to be tracked and an interceptor launched and hit its target.

Cruise missiles fly much lower and can take much more circuitous routes, making it more difficult to detect, but as the report noted, the IAF has jets that are equipped with highly advanced radar systems that can spot and shoot down such threats.

The IDF has successfully intercepted many missiles fired by the Yemeni proxy of the Iranian regime, although a few have gotten through, hitting in and around Eilat for the most part.  In July, the Islamist terrorists managed to hit Tel Aviv, killing one man.

The Houthis vowed to retaliate against Israel for its massive air raid two months ago on the terrorist-held port of Hodeidah in Yemen, carried out in response to the Tel Aviv attack. This weekend, a senior Houthi official had said that “There will be surprises” in the next few days regarding their threat.

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