Sanaa, Jan 14 (IANS): Yemen's Houthi group took responsibility for launching a ballistic missile at the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.
"We carried out a military operation targeting a vital target of the Israeli enemy in Tel Aviv, using a hypersonic ballistic missile," Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement on Monday night, aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.
"The operation achieved its goal successfully," he said, adding that his group also carried out an attack using four drones and targeted "vital targets" in Tel Aviv, Xinhua news agency reported.
Sarea vowed that his group's attacks against Israel "will continue until aggression on Gaza Strip" stops.
Earlier Israel's military said its aerial defence system intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Yemen on Monday evening which disrupted air traffic in Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
"One projectile launched from Yemen was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory," the military said in a statement.
The missile activated sirens in the north of the occupied West Bank, Jezreel Valley, and Beit She'an Valley, the military added, noting no casualties were immediately reported.
The incident followed the military's interception of a drone launched by Houthi forces from Yemen in the morning.
Since November 2023, the Houthis has been carrying out rocket and drone attacks on Israel, and disrupting "Israeli-linked" shipping in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians amid the conflict in Gaza.
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that "Yemen's Houthis are paying and will continue to pay a heavy price for their aggression (on Israel)," describing them as a proxy of Iran and "a threat to Israel and the entire region."
Netanyahu's remarks came after Israel's military announced that its warplanes targeted the Hezyaz power station in Yemen's capital Sanaa, as well as the Yemeni ports of Hodeidah and Ras Issa. The military claimed it targeted infrastructures used by Houthi forces for military operations.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, who observed the airstrikes from the Air Force command centre in Tel Aviv, said, "The port of Hodeidah is paralysed, and the Ras Issa port is ablaze," adding the strikes sent a message to the Houthi group that "no one will be immune."