Netanyahu warns Houthis will pay a ‘heavy price’ after missile strikes on Israel.

The Houthis in Yemen have fired a missile deep into Israel, and the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that the group will pay a heavy price.

The projectile was fired from Yemen towards Israel at 6 am local time this morning, said the Israel Defense Forces, who also stated that it “most likely fragmented in mid-air” and that the missile landed in an open field in central Israel without any reported casualties.

Authorities shared several videos and pictures on Telegram. In one of the videos, one can see thick columns of smoke in the sky over an open area, and in others, inside Modi’in train station between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, with broken glasses.

A spokesman for the Houthis backed by Iran said that the group conducted the attack and stated that a ‘new hypersonic ballistic missile’ was used and warned Israel that more attacks should be expected before the first anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Even after months of rising tensions, this is one of the rare cases that a missile flew as far as the central part of Israel that is normally considered safe for civilians. “We are engaged in a multifront war against Iran’s bad axis that seeks to eliminate us,” said Netanyahu before the cabinet meeting.

“They should have learnt now that we punish anyone who tries to harm us,” he said while alluding to the recent Israeli attack on Yemen’s Hodeidah port in July after a drone attack on Tel Aviv.

Israeli police claimed that they were in collaboration with the police bomb squad in the Shfela area or the Judaean Foothills where the interceptor fragment had landed. Police are now cordoning off the area as they search for more pieces of the interceptor, an official report said.

An Israeli military spokesman said that sirens were heard across central and northern areas of Israel, while the airport in Tel Aviv also had its sirens, according to the airport spokesperson who spoke to CNN. Passengers were seen scampering around to seek refuge, as videos captured on social media proved.

On Sunday morning, the IDF added that about 40 projectiles were launched from Lebanon into the northern part of the country; some of them were intercepted, and the others fell into the territory of open fields. There have been no reports of any losses of lives, but authorities are dousing fires that came with the fallen projectiles.

There has been hostility felt between Israel, Yemen and Lebanon for months now as Israel has been targeting the Hamas militants in Gaza after the attacks that happened on October 7. Politicians and authorities worldwide have spoken of the risk of an escalation of a hot Mid-East conflict.

Since the start of the war, Yemen’s most populous regions administered by the Iran-backed Houthi group have frequently launched drone and missile attacks on Israel. Many of them have been ensured by Israel’s defences or its friends’.

It has also attacked shipping in the Red Sea as a way of protesting about the issue of war in Gaza against Israel. More significantly, in July, the group stated that it had conducted a deadly drone attack in Tel Aviv, Israel’s business capital, with the Houthi drones hitting the city for the first time.

The next day, the Israelis hit back with deadly air raids on a Yemeni port – the first time Israel had attacked Yemen, said the Israeli authorities. Hezbollah in Lebanon, backed by Iran, has also targeted northern Israel; rockets and drones on Saturday targeted the Israeli military.