ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Israeli military on Saturday said that they have intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, which was the third strike claimed by the Iran-backed Houthis in the past two days.

Yahya Saree, the military spokesperson for the Houthis, said in a video statement on Saturday that the group had targeted a military facility belonging to the Israeli army in central Israel "using a Palestine 2 hypersonic ballistic missile."

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement earlier on Saturday that they had intercepted “a missile that was launched from Yemen,” a day after they announced that they had shot down another missile, also claimed by the Houthis, en route to the country.

Battered by US and, as of recently, British airstrikes, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have continued to fight against what they describe as “Israeli-American aggression,” launching a hypersonic missile at an airbase in Israel’s Negev desert on Sunday.

The Houthis began a campaign targeting international shipping in the wake of the Palestinian group Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, with over 100 merchant vessels having been targeted by Houthi militants in the period since.

In addition to previous missile launches, the Yemeni militant group has previously claimed successful drone attacks against Tel Aviv.

Israel operates a sophisticated air defense system comprising myriad shelters and sirens designed to protect its population, as well as ground-to-air missiles designed to intercept incoming projectiles.