Israeli forces have said they intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Houthi militants in Yemen targeting the southern city of Eilat, in retaliation for a series of Israeli strikes on the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah.
Meanwhile, forest fires engulfed parts of northern Israel after a barrage of rocket fire from Lebanon.
Sirens sounded across the north of the country after the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired a volley of rockets and drones from across the border, raising fears of a regional confrontation as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, prepared to travel to Washington for a planned speech before Congress.
The Israeli army said some rockets targeting northern Israel were intercepted, while drones sent from Lebanon landed in open fields, sparking forest fires. Israeli forces said they struck southern Lebanon in response.
The Houthi military spokesperson, Brig Gen Yahya Saree, said the militants fired multiple ballistic missiles towards Eilat early on Sunday morning, and targeted an American ship in the Red Sea with missiles and drones, calling both attempts “successful”.
The group had promised a “huge” response to Israeli attacks, amid fears of increasing regional conflict. Gaza’s civil defence reported heavy fighting in the southern city of Rafah as well as dozens of deaths from Israeli airstrikes in the central part of the territory.
The Houthis’ “response to the Israeli aggression against our country is inevitably coming and will be huge”, said Saree.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its long-range Arrow 3 missile defence system intercepted the missiles directed at Eilat outside Israeli airspace, but sirens sounded as a warning to local people about possible falling shrapnel.
The attempted strikes on the port city followed a barrage of Israeli airstrikes targeting oil facilities, cranes, and a power station near Hodeidah, which Saree said killed three people, wounded 87 and left columns of smoke and fire towering over the port facilities.
Netanyahu said Israel selected the targets in Hodeidah as the port was used for “military purposes”.
“They used this weapon to attack Israel, to attack the countries of the region, to attack an international shipping lane, one of the most important shipping lanes in the world,” he said after the strikes.
The Times of Israel reported that the Israeli air force believed targeting infrastructure such as cranes, which it alleged were employed for military purposes, would send a message to hostile parties including Hezbollah that Israel was capable and willing to carry out what could be considered disproportionate responses to attacks.
The targeting of Hodeidah’s port facilities sparked fears for the provision of international aid into Yemen, where millions are facing starvation and an estimated 18.2 million people are in need of humanitarian relief, according to the EU.
The UN development programme has previously described Hodeidah port as “critical to the delivery of food and humanitarian assistance”.
Saudi Arabian authorities said after the strikes the country had no involvement in the attack, and declined to allow its airspace to be used for the attacks despite a continuing conflict with Houthi militants.
Israeli forces struck Hodeidah in response to a rare drone attack on Tel Aviv in the early hours of Friday morning, which killed one man and injured 10 others. While the Houthis hailed the assault as a success due to their developing drone capacity, Israeli authorities blamed “human error” for leaving a gap in air defences.
The Houthis have vowed to continue their attacks as long as the Israeli assault on Gaza continues. Israeli strikes on the territory have killed more than 38,000 people in almost 10 months of war, the longest in the country’s history.
Abdulmalik al-Houthi, the leader of the Houthi militia in Yemen, said “attacks on civilian facilities do not serve as a deterrent for us”.
The purpose of the drone attack, he added, was “to exert pressure to stop the aggression in Gaza as the war enters its 10th month”.
For months, the group’s targeting of global shipping routes in the Red Sea has caused serious disruptions to trade, forcing ships to take alternative routes away from Eilat and collapsing business in the port.
Netanyahu remains under increasing pressure at home, including from the Israeli public and his own military top brass, to agree a ceasefire deal that would release some of the estimated 116 hostages still held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and a pause in fighting.
The prime minister reportedly met Israeli negotiators on Sunday before he was due to fly to Washington. He is now due to depart for the US on Monday morning and meet Biden on Tuesday, his office said, without giving a reason for the delay.
Observers hope Netanyahu’s US trip will also provide a pathway to cool tensions in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, and avert a regional war.
Hezbollah fired rockets towards a kibbutz in northern Israel on Saturday, in response to an Israeli strike in Lebanon that hit an arms depot and wounded several people including children. Hamas militants based in Lebanon also fired on an Israeli army base, and a drone strike wounded two Israeli soldiers in the occupied Golan Heights.
Despite Washington’s top diplomat, Antony Blinken, asserting that a ceasefire deal was near “the goalline”, observers fear major gaps remain.
Those with close knowledge of the negotiations have said US efforts to prevent a war between Israel and Lebanon have proved more successful than efforts to secure peace in Gaza. The Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said this month that the group would halt attacks on Israel if a ceasefire in Gaza was secured.
